Rooney: Set United on their way
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Manchester United marked
manager Sir Alex Ferguson's 900th league game in style as they moved
level with Chelsea at the top of the table with a home victory over a
much-changed Wolves side, while Aston Villa won at Sunderland to return
to third.
In-form Birmingham climbed to fifth as Alex McLeish's
side recorded a fifth successive league win by defeating Blackburn at
St Andrews, and Bolton overcame fellow strugglers West Ham after a
mistake from Robert Green at the Reebok Stadium helped the Trotters to
move out of the relegation zone at Wolves' expense.
Ferguson was celebrating his 900th league game in charge of
United and a 3-0 victory over
Wolves provided the perfect marker to ensure the lead of Chelsea, who host Portsmouth on Wednesday, is based only on goal difference.
But
Wolves boss Mick McCarthy also created a story as, seemingly with
Saturday's game with Burnley in mind, he made 10 changes to the team
which won at Tottenham at the weekend, with goalkeeper Marcus Hahnemann
the only survivor.
United had dominated the opening phases at
Old Trafford, but they did not take the lead until the half-hour mark
as Wayne Rooney converted a penalty after Ronald Zubar intentionally,
and foolishly, handled a cross.
Wolves had battled hard prior to
falling behind, but they were hit by an additional setback two minutes
before half-time as Nemanja Vidic headed past Hahnemann from a Darron
Gibson corner.
United's third came in the 66th minute as Dimitar
Berbatov brilliantly set up Antonio Valencia with an overhead kick for
a 10-yard finish to end any debate that he and his team-mates had
recovered from their weekend defeat to Villa.
Martin O'Neill's
Villa continue to look very well equipped to qualify for the UEFA Champions League after a 2-0 win over
Sunderland at the Stadium of Light, where the home side had captain Lorik Cana sent off in the second half.
England
striker Emile Heskey opened the scoring in the 24th minute as the
increasingly-impressive James Milner flicked a pass through the heart
of the Sunderland defence for his team-mate to fire low past Marton
Fulop.
Villa goalkeeper Brad Friedel was required to demonstrate
why he is regarded as one of the best in the league before half-time as
he superbly stopped an Andy Reid shot.
It was harsh on Sunderland
that they were not on level terms, but Steve Bruce's side continued to
waste chances in the second half as Reid hit a volley wide after Darren
Bent had done well to head on.
Milner then made the Black Cats
pay as he added fuel to rumours that he could be an England starter at
the World Cup with a superb goal from 25 yards on 61 minutes.
Things went from bad to worse for Bruce with 11 minutes remaining as Cana was sent off for a second booking.
McLeish has been keen to play down talk of European qualification this season but the Scot will have his work cut out after
Birmingham's 2-1 win over
Blackburn moved the Blues level on points with fifth-placed Tottenham.
Cameron
Jerome took advantage of sleepy defending from Blackburn on 12 minutes
as McLeish' No.10 knocked past Paul Robinson from close range after
collecting the ball from a ricocheted Sebastian Larsson cross.
Birmingham
thought they had a second on 20 minutes when Christian Benitez netted
from Stephen Carr's pass, but the Ecuadorian's effort was ruled out due
to a tight offside decision.
Carr had an excellent evening and
delivered Jerome's second goal on a plate as he crossed for his
team-mate to apply a simple finish three minutes after half-time.
Blackburn
set up a nervy finish in England's Second City when Ryan Nelsen tapped
in from close range after Pascal Chimbonda had turned a Morten Gamst
Pedersen free-kick across the face of goal in the 69th minute, but it
was not enough.
Birmingham failed to make life more comfortable
in the closing minutes as Benitez staggeringly hit the cross bar at an
open goal, however the Blues hung on to record five successive Premier
League wins for the first time in the club's history.
Gary Megson's
Bolton again eased the pressure on their under-fire manager with what could prove to be a vital 3-1 win over
West Ham at the Reebok Stadium.
Bolton,
who drew 3-3 with Manchester City at the weekend, had the better of the
first half and Kevin Davies could have scored in the opening seconds
with a deflected effort from long range.
West Ham handed Kieron
Dyer a first start in three months, but the injury-prone midfielder
limped off with an apparent hamstring problem after 21 minutes.
The
game came to life after the interval and Lee Chung-Yong broke the
deadlock after 64 minutes following an excellent give-and-go with Ivan
Klasnic.
But Gianfranco Zola's Hammers were level five minutes
later as Alessandro Diamanti made no mistake when meeting Jack
Collison's lay-off.
Bolton, though, regained the lead as England
hopeful Green produced a horrible moment in the 77th minute as he
fumbled a deflected Gary Cahill volley to give Klasnic a simple rebound.
Megson's
men then wrapped up the points with two minutes remaining as Cahill
headed substitute Ricardo Gardner's back-post corner.
