Sport

Rooney inspires United to victory

— PHOTO: AP

COCK-A-HOOP: Manchester United’s Wayne Rooney exults after scoring against West Bromwich Albion on Saturday.

MANCHESTER: Wayne Rooney continued his remarkable goal-scoring run as Manchester United kept the pressure on Chelsea and Liverpool with a 4-0 victory over West Bromwich at Old Trafford on Saturday.

Cristiano Ronaldo, Dimitar Berbatov and Nani were also on the mark for United as Sir Alex Ferguson’s side came up with the perfect response to victories from leader Chelsea and second-placed Liverpool earlier in the day.

Rooney, so impressive in England’s World Cup victories over Kazakhstan and Belarus last week, also had what appeared a perfectly valid first half strike ruled out by referee Mark Halsey.

But that hardly mattered when the United forward extended his extraordinary scoring sequence to eight goals in the last six games for club and country.

A golden period of three goals in 15 minutes started in the 56th minute when United broke out of defence, Berbatov sprung Rooney with a pass from the halfway line and the forward powered into Albion territory, easily sidestepping Ryan Donk, before beating the keeper with an unstoppable near post shot.

In the 69th minute, any lingering hope Albion had of rescuing a point from its visit disappeared when Ronaldo doubled the home team’s lead.

Again, the goal showcased United at its most devastating and lethal best, hitting Albion on the counter-attack with Darren Fletcher’s short pass being helped into the path of Ronaldo by Rooney and the Portuguese winger easily slotting the ball past the advancing Scott Carson.

Two minutes further on, and Berbatov netted a goal which his overall quiet performance had scarcely merited, nonchalantly turning in the ball at the far post after Jonas Olsson had failed to deal with Nani’s low cross.

Nani completed the rout on the stroke of normal time, turning in Rooney’s far post cross after Ryan Giggs and Berbatov had launched another flowing attack.

The manner, and size, of the defeat were harsh for Albion, given the manner in which it had stoutly kept out United for nearly an hour. It did enjoy a large slice of luck thanks to referee Halsey disallowing a Rooney ’goal’ in the 22nd minute.

It came from a poor back pass from James Morrison, which fell directly to Ronaldo who, in turn, slipped a perfect pass for Rooney to chase into the Albion penalty area.

There was the slightest of contact between the England forward and defender Gianni Zuiverloon before Rooney steadied himself and beat Carson with an expert finish but the referee judged otherwise, ruling out the goal for a supposed push by the United man. That injustice clearly spurred on United which might have taken the lead before the interval.

A Giggs free-kick was met by a near-post header from Rooney which Carson kept out well while poor defending forced Robinson into a desperate and timely tackle on Ronaldo.

In response, Albion’s only real view of goal was limited to two long-range shots from Chris Brunt, one in each half, which never looked like testing Edwin Van der Sar, and a late run from Ishmael Miller which Giggs intercepted and forced his keeper to save.

The results: Arsenal 3 (Nasri 48, van Persie 70, Walcott 90) bt Everton 1 (Osman 9).

Aston Villa 0 drew with Portsmouth 0.

Bolton 0 drew with Blackburn 0; Fulham 0 drew with Sunderland 0.

Liverpool 3 (Kuyt 37, 85, Riera 80) bt Wigan 2 (Zaki 29, 45). — Agencies

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