By IANS
London : Manchester United marched to the English Premier League summit after an overwhelming 4-0 win over Wigan Athletic at Old Trafford, reports Xinhua.
The four second half goals from the defending Premiership champions’ attacking trio of Carlos Tevez, Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney Saturday put the side atop the table for the first time this season.
In Saturday’s only other game, Craig Gardner scored for the second match in succession to hand Aston Villa a 1-0 home win over West Ham United.
The midfielder fired home a deflected free-kick in the 23rd minute after Danny Gabbidon tripped Gabriel Agbonlahor on the edge of the area.
Wigan worked hard to keep United at bay in the first-half but a superb solo by Tevez on 54 minutes opened the floodgates.
Ronaldo headed in following a United corner from close range only four minutes later.
The hosts confirmed their dominance on 76 minutes when Rooney set up Ronaldo before the England striker headed in the fourth, and his first league goal this season, to secure their sixth victory in a row.
“Considering all the things that happened I think we’ve done fantastically well,” said United manager Sir Alex Ferguson. “I was very pleased with the football in the second half.”
“We had 10 players missing but great credit to the players who played today.”
However, he had to swallow the win with mixed feelings as Louis Saha pulled out of the game after hurting himself in the pre-match warm-up and Nemanja Vidic and John O’Shea went off in the first half through injuries.
The major damage was inflicted as Vidic failed to recover from an early clash of heads with Marcus Bent.
Within seven minutes, Ferguson had lost O’Shea as well after the Irishman pulled up with what appeared to be a muscle problem.
It had been a nightmare for United before the break as, despite the hat-trick casualties added to the already huge injury list, Ronaldo was stumbled twice in the box without earning a penalty.