Manchester United Fans Club

Manchester United fifth away victory was rather easy at the Stadium of Light. The Red Devils barely broke sweat as goals from Wayne Rooney, Cristiano Ronaldo and a Louis Saha double sealed the victory.

Earlier in the day, football fans around the world were thrilled by probably the games of the season in between Chelsea vs Aston Villa which finish 4-4 with 3 red card and 2 penalty. Elsewhere Tottenham thrashed sorry Fulham 5-1 at White Hart Lane, this could be the most entertaining week of football so far.

Sir Alex re-asserted his authority over talismanic former skipper Roy Keane as Manchester United maintain the pressure on Arsenal. United will top the table for at least 2 hours prior to Arsenal away to Portsmouth game.

United 4-0 victory over Roy Keane’s side leave little doubt as to the gulf in class between the teams at opposite end of the Barclays Premier League. United victory was as comfortable as the scoreline suggest as the Red Devils cut through the Black Cats defence at will to expose goalkeeper Craig Gordon at regular intervals.

Fergie made five changes to the side that beat Everton, Fletcher handed his first league start of the season, Saha starting up front with Rooney. Nani was starting ahead of Giggs on the left of midfield, O’Shea came in for Frenchman Evra who was rested and Wes Brown installed back to the starting line-up operating from on the right. Perhaps the most surprising was Ji-Sung Park joining the substitute bench.

United already crushing with 3 goals cushion right at the stroke of half time, Rooney opened the scoring chart in the 20th minute by exploiting some lax Sunderland defending. Moments later, Cristiano Ronaldo fed Wayne Rooney down the inside left channel. The England international outpaced his marker, reached the corner of the 18-yard box and picked out Louis Saha in the middle with a curling cross.

From there, Saha was left with the relatively simple task of side-footing the ball past Gordon to send the Reds 2-0 up and confirm the gulf in class between the two sides. Ronaldo then seal on a blistering start when he smashed home an injury time free kick with Gordon rooted to the spot.

Keane’s response was to replace Wallace with the more combative Grant Leadbitter and withdraw Waghorn into a five-man midfield for the second half, although the Black Cats were pinned back inside their own half as United threatened to cut loose.

The was a brief glimmer of hope for the home side when Michael Chopra’s enterprising run set up Dickson Etuhu to shoot on 51 minutes, but he skied his effort harmlessly over. Former United defender Paul McShane denied Rooney a second with a 54th-minute block, but Kuszczak had to dive low to his right to keep out Kenwyne Jones’ 56th-minute striker.

Ronaldo departed to warm applause from both sets of supporters a minute later with his job done as Park Ji-Sung was handed his first taste of first-team action since undergoing knee surgery in March.

The home side rallied as the clock ran down, but with the visitors in cruise control, genuine openings were few and far between.

Chopra saw a 75th-minute shot beaten away by Kuszczak, but it came either side of another Gordon save from Rooney and an uncharacteristically wild close-range volley from the United man.

There was, however more to come, and when Nani went down under Collins’ challenge, referee Uriah Rennie pointed to the spot and Saha obliged.