Brilliant United rout Wigan
Manchester United and Arsenal close in on leaders Chelsea with big wins.
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| Rooney was unstoppable for United [GALLO/GETTY] |
Manchester United thrashed Wigan 5-0 and Arsenal beat Portsmouth 4-1 to diminish Chelsea’s advantage at the top of the English Premier League going into 2010.
Wayne Rooney’s 15th goal of the season started the rout that moved second-place United to within two points of Chelsea.
It was a welcome 68th birthday present for United manager Alex Ferguson.
“It was an excellent performance,” a buoyant Ferguson said.
“Rooney was absolutely fantastic; the energy he shows and desire to win is marvellous.”
Like Rooney, Eduardo da Silva also scored first for Arsenal in the 28th minute as the London club cemented their title credentials at the expense of bottom-place Portsmouth, who were fighting to prevent bankruptcy.
Arsenal are two points behind United, but have a game in hand over Chelsea and the 18-time English champions.
Game on
“We’re up for it, the commitment is there and the talent is there,” Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said.
“We’ll fight and this team is ready to give everything.”
United, though, were targeting a fourth straight title, and a sign of the strength of Ferguson’s squad was that he fielded a different line-up for a 99th consecutive match.
Rooney was unstoppable against Wigan. The England striker connected with defender Rafael Da Silva’s low cross at the near post in the 28th and steered the ball beyond Chris Kirkland.
United quickly doubled their advantage when former Wigan winger Antonio Valencia cut the ball back for Michael Carrick to sweep home.
A third came on the stroke of half-time when Darren Fletcher found Rafael on the edge of the area and the Brazilian drilled a low shot past Kirkland and ran across to the bench to celebrate with twin brother Fabio.
Kirkland was forced off injured at half-time and his replacement, Mike Pollitt, was beaten after five minutes. Valencia skipped past Maynor Figueroa and crossed into the penalty area where Hendry Thomas had been defending before the Wigan player slipped.
Having created three goals, Valencia piled more misery on his former club when he lofted the ball over the onrushing Pollitt in the 75th.
Good timing
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“The play, movement and tempo of the game was great for us,” Ferguson said.
“They kept the momentum going for us all night and you never know how important the goal difference could be, although Chelsea still have two more than us.”
While Arsenal chase a first league title since 2004, Portsmouth were fighting for survival – not only in the Premier League, but for their very existence.
It emerged earlier in the day that the cash-strapped 2008 FA Cup winners face bankruptcy unless they can clear debts to the British government by February.
Pompey’s miserable plight was reflected in Arsenal’s opening goal with Eduardo’s free kick taking a huge deflection off defender Younes Kaboul to float past static goalkeeper Hermann Hreidarsson at the right-hand post.
Samir Nasri scored another for Arsenal just before the break after receiving the ball from Aaron Ramsey’s flick-on.
Ramsey got on the scoresheet himself in the 69th, taking the ball off Vanden Borre and charging past Frederic Piquionne before lashing in a left-foot shot from the edge of the box.
Nadir Belhadj pulled one back for Pompey but Alex Song’s header from Nasri’s right-wing cross killed off the match in the 81st with Arsenal’s 51st goal of the season.