CRISTIANO Ronaldo pole-axed 10-man Blackburn with a lethal one-two as Manchester United made light of Wayne Rooney's absence and surged to the Barclays Premier League summit.
Red Devils old-boy Mark Hughes, a candidate to replace Sir Alex Ferguson one day, could have been proud of Rovers' battling efforts for all but two minutes of the contest, even after the dismissal of David Dunn.
But it was in those 120 seconds that Ronaldo destroyed them, powering home Ryan Giggs' corner before finishing off Carlos Tevez's magnificent square pass.
Although Ronaldo failed to complete his first United hat-trick, the double strike took him to 10 for the season and provided his team with their ninth win in 10 matches.
That run that does not seem likely to be tested by Bolton, Fulham and Derby, their next three opponents, as the pressure starts to build in the championship race.
Although Ferguson has hinted there will be no managerial vacancy at United for possibly another four years, Hughes ticks all the boxes as a potential successor.
Impressed
Certainly a capacity crowd could not help but be impressed by Blackburn's early efforts.
With Benni McCarthy and Roque Santa Cruz mobile up front, the returning Aaron Mokoena biting into tackles in midfield and David Bentley providing a constant threat out wide, Rovers could easily have been ahead before Ronaldo sent them to the floor.
The nearest they came was when Christopher Samba belted a shot against Edwin van der Sar's left-hand post, with the Dutchman totally beaten.
United were left to complain at referee Chris Foy's failure to spot Dunn's foul on Ronaldo on the edge of the Blackburn box which offered Samba his opportunity.
However, given the way Hughes spent the final 15 minutes of the opening period shaking his head in disbelief at the number of borderline decisions that went against his side, he would not have been impressed at the hosts moans.
And by half-time, Hughes had plenty to occupy his mind too.
With Tevez striking up such a formidable partnership with Rooney, Ronaldo has been left largely in the shadows this term.
Yet he remains an inspiring and electric performer. Confidence is clearly not a problem either, so he was hardly going to be deterred by a couple of erratic efforts which led to free-kick duties being handed over to Owen Hargreaves at one point.
Pace
Having won the corner initially with a shot that flicked off Dunn, Ronaldo rose highest to meet Giggs' set piece and this time Bentley, who had already hacked one shot off the line from the Portugal winger, could not keep hit out
Within sixty seconds, Blackburn were two down, unable to withstand the sheer pace of United's brutal counter-attack.
Once Brett Emerton had been unable to do any more than nod Rio Ferdinand's clearance straight up in the air, Rovers were doomed.
Louis Saha, on his first Premier League start since February and a man with much responsibility on his shoulders in Rooney's absence, was onto the loose ball in a flash, prodding it to Tevez who tore into the Blackburn half.
Saha kept motoring but it was Ronaldo to his right who received the perfect pass Tevez delivered with the outside of his right boot. Brad Friedel did his best to deny the wide-man but ultimately he failed.
If Hughes was unhappy before half-time, he was positively fuming seven minutes after the restart when his side were reduced to 10 men by Dunn's dismissal.
The former England international had already picked up one harsh booking for hauling back Tevez, so once Foy had deemed his late tackle on Saha as deliberate, a red card was automatic.
It was a harsh call given the severity of the two offences combined and Hughes could not hide his disgust.
Dunn's exit effectively ended any hope of Blackburn preserving their unbeaten away record, although they remained determined enough to prevent United adding to their tally.
Not that Ferguson will be too bothered by that. The late introductions of Nani and Michael Carrick proved just what depth the Scot has at his disposal at a time when Rooney, Paul Scholes, Gary Neville, Park Ji-sung and Mikael Silvestre are all missing.
And, while Arsenal will head into the international break on top if they beat Reading tomorrow, on current form it would be a brave man to bet on United not successfully defending their title.
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Great game. Blackburn played well, but I'm amazed it didn't end up another 4-goal rout after the sending off. Giggs was magnificent, and yes, bobbyd, I watched him very closely.
I'll be one of the first to admit to having a go at Giggs of late. However, he was superb today and helped lay the foundations for a great win against a resilient Blackburn side. The lad was mesmeric. Our squad looks absolutely outstanding and I really feel our strength in depth will make all the difference in May.
Everyone's talking about Fergie's successor but I don't want to even contemplate his retirement when I look at what he's constructing right now and the seemingly magical possibilities for the future, in terms of success for our club.
although giggsy played well, he still managed to give the ball away on many occasions... i found Anderson impressive yet again and Ronny`s goals were brilliantly taken.
my MOTM was Evra!
Well done UNITED. We`re gonna defend our title!
Another poor display from Saha we need to get rid now, total waste of money, can fergie not see how much debt ridden we are?
Sean, did you actually enjoy the match even though deep down and lets be honest now, the referee favoured United AGAIN,deary deary me surely this awful practice wont last much longer it is so unhealthy for the game never mind human decency and HONESTY!
I thought we were second best for the first 20-25 minutes or so but once we got the first goal we looked much better. Great strikes by Ronnie, just when needed. I was very disappointed with Saha, perhaps it was just me, but I thought he was very timid indeed, backing off tackles, not challenging for the ball like he has in the past. He seemed not to want the ball, and disinterested in the game? Sure, nice touch which led to our second goal, but other than that a strange performance from him. Scared of injury perhaps but he needs to apply himself much better than we saw today, and he is very capable of that. Once Hargreaves and Anderson settled down I thought they were terrific and Evra was magnificent yet again (MOM for me despite Ronnie's 2 goals). Giggs had a much better game, especially in the second half. He really is so much better in his natural wide left spot. Tevez, what a workhorse, great engine and vision, he's a keeper. Overall a fairly subdued team performance, but professional and controlled once we got our goals. 3 more points in the bag.
Good, professional display against an on-form Blackburn side who are always a tough side for us.
Defence was absolutely brilliant at countering the McCarthy- Santa Cruz parnership and looks as resolute as ever.
Midfield- yet again I am very pleased. Anderson and Hargreaves seem to be forming an assured and confident partnership in the middle of the park. Carrick, Fletcher, O'Shea etc sure are going to have a hard time breaking into the first team :P "new signing" Paul Scholes is also going
to come back which increases our midfield options even further.
Ronaldo and Giggs were also brilliant; Ronaldo as incisive as usual and Giggs looked fresh and had an excellent game. Tevez was also very lively and provided an assist. Looks more of a United player with every game he plays.
My only tiny niggling worry was that we could have had a few more and the fact that Saha looked a bit rusty; but I guess that will come with games as he reaches full fitness.
Other than that, I have no complaints. Well done United.
It was like watching Giggs Of old today .Superb performance ! Also if theres a better left back than Evra in the Premiership this season I would like to know who?
My best Jesse Cole!
1- I am not itressted in crack,so i don´t know weather it is cheap or not here in Sweden.
2- It is not about crack,it is about footboll,it is about MU which i have support for 40 years non-stop -and surely do the same next 40 years too-it is about get payed several hudreds of thousend £ for doing almost nothing.
3- I don´t have any statics about how many minuts in how many matches SAHA has played since he came to us,do you? but it is really not many.You can´t seriouslly mean that SAHA has been more fit than injured in five years time.
4- It is not personal,i respect him as indiviuell very much and even as footboller,but he does not have MU standard.ROONEY,RONALDO,TEVEZ...have.I am sure he could be a good player at for ex Fullham(as he was),Everton,Bolton or... but not at Man United. Not every player can be at MU level as Cantona,Best,Robson Charlton and... were,and it is just exactlly because MU has been among the top ten year after year. It is simply as it.
5- It is unjust and unfair to other players that pay SAHA much more than many others while they are fit,they train.they produce and they deliver, SAHA does not.
6- No player is bigger or is more imortant than THE CLUB. The main issue and the most important thig is that the club keep its harmoni and could work together to deliver. Five years experience tells us whit SAHA it does not.
7- Which other club or company do you think can employ a person whit so high salary but the employee is sick and on the treatment more than of half of the time? Nobody is irreplaceable.
8- At the end of the day i fully trust SAF and his judgement.
9- I am sorry about my poor English
10- Whit my best wishes to you Jesse.
Buy Santa Cruz. HE ticks all the boxes. Massive, physical, quick, skillful - a right handful! He was very impressive today, unlike Benny Mccarthy. Santa Cruz or Kenwyn Jones from Sundeland are the 2 we should be looking at. Dimitar Berbatov looks like another sulking "I'm bigger than the club" baby, so talented or not, we shouldn't touch him with a ten foot goat prod (like a barge pole but bigger, with a sharp burr on the end for troublesome goats, like my one)
Although Ronaldo got my vote for Man of the match, I was very impressed,yet again,by the performance of Anderson. His workrate was phenominal and he oozes such great talent!! We now must have the best collection of midfielders than any other team in Europe.
how come as soon as united play there match report is put up on the m.e.n web site.where is man citys match report
Happy days so many positives! We have IMO the best player in the world right now. Alex is playing the best 11 ie Carrick on the bench & JOS/DF not used. We have players who are not only gifted but are fighters ie proper players. As an occasional critic of Alex I have to say the guy has created a squad which should give him a successful end to his reign. CQ has to merit big respect for his huge part in the new signings but somehow I think Hughesy will be our next manager he ticks all the boxes.
As good a profile as many ex-players have, I remember the manager production-line in the early '70's esp post Doc, Big Ron, etc, my own preference would be for an 'outsider', esp George Burley!
Sean I agree Giggs passed the test he was VERY GOOD today I hold my hands up.
Owen was very good today and will only get better has the season goes on.He definately deserves his place,Dont you agree?
Sean, Giggs was FAR FROM MAGNIFICENT. What are you on? He was excellent IN THE LAST GAME AGAINST ARSENAL, NOT SO MUCH THIS ONE.
This one was much more about Anderson, who started well, then went a bit quiet before dominating as the game wore on. Hargreaves, who was excellente the whole game covering the back 4 and breaking up B'Burn attacks, but dwarfing both of them was obviously that man Ronaldo.
For once the ENTIRE back 4 was excellente for the entire game as that Samba shot that rattled off the post was their only good chance for the whole game.
Tev was being very tighty marshalled for the most part but was still relatively good (without Rooney there) and it was his beautiful pass that set Ronnie up for his 2nd.
By the way, if Saha gets injured again whilst Rooney is then we'll have to use Ronnie as a striker with Nani and Giggsy on the wings.
Wes Brown kept the dangerous Morten-Gamst Pedersen quiet yes but his style was rather physical (as it was against Arsenal) and I'd prefer him to get back to being a classy defender rather than an overly physical one. I'd still like Gazza back but in his absence I reckon Simmo should be given another shot against the Boltonians.
The 2 games Simmo has had have been ones against Wigan and Dynamo where he's had zero defending to do, so it's hard to put a gauge on him until he does.
Don't forget that the game was fairly even until Dunn was sent off which isn't good.
What is good is to see Hargreaves and Anderson playing together as this our no.1 central mid-field pairing, defo.
Giggs deserved to start ahead of Nani after his performance against Arsenal and with Nani starting against Dynamo but did nothing much apart from the couple of efforts he had.
sean for a 15 minute spell giggs was sublime and showed us that he has still got it in abundance when he can get his arse in gear. pity his first half was of such a poor standard when he constantly gave the ball away cheaply. it was agood win against a decent side but united still seem to be playing well within themselves and only seem prepared to do just enough to win the game.
Good game, but not a great one. Lucky us, with Tevez, Giggs & Ronaldo performed highly above the par yesterday.
I wish there is a magic liquor to help Tevez grow up more 2-3 feet high in a month (hahaha just kidding), so we could have, another striker with strong neck to deal with heading to the net. (we already have one in Ronaldo).
i think it was a "good' display from utd. they have been playing some awesome ball recently but it worries me that we are not hammering teams the way the other 3 big teams have done when they've been given the chance. why is it that utd cant seem put 6, 7 or 8 past the opposition. i mean, the attack is full of potent goalscorers, + our defenders chip in as well. so what is the problem? it seems that utd take their foot off the pedal after scoring 2 goals. i would love to see a few big scores being handed out.
Maybe Uniteds best match against a tuff opposition.
Ronaldo was MOM and I don't think even Red Dawn will say something else, specially because his favourite player his injured again. My rates:
VDS:8 allways cool and saved United a couple of times. I love his way of putting the ball to play straight away.Brown 7,Evra 9: Could play as a winger with his skills.Rio 8: safe and cool. Vidic 8: Great match.CR 10: How can you still complain about this guy?.OH 8: much better than Carrick, works hard and makes the game flow much faster.Anderson 8: Much closer from his real position and I hope you all notice his dribbling by the corner and his cross. That´s closer from the real Anderson. He has skills, I know because I've seen them.Giggs 10: best match for really long.Tevez: 9: He was all over, for me one of his best matches.Saha 7: could see that he needs more matches but the game open up when played with a really CF, if fit he is really good.Nani 6: came in well again. Carrick 3: he will loose his spot, he is too slow but could be a better back up player for the midfield than O'shea if he accepts his sub role.
Take away ronaldo and do we really possess the firepower to out score everyone especially when rooney is injured, giggs and scholes goal tallies go down every year, carrick, hargreaves, fletcher and anderson havent scored this year yet and i dont imagine any of them will get more than 2 a season adding to that saha's injuries and tevez sitting off the front, i dont think we are as blessed as some think,we could do with another striker in january.
" it worries me that we are not hammering teams the way the other 3 big teams have done when they've been given the chance "
Well, Blackburn have already drawn with all the other "3 big teams", so this comment is a front-runner in the competition for most bizarre complaint of the week!
Excellent result against a very good side. I was really nervous about this game - after hearing about Rooney's injury - but they did us prowd. Saha was showing a bit of ring-rust (unsurprisingly) but every other player can hold their heads up high. Pick of the bunch, IMO, were Ronnie, Giggs and Evra, who were all absolutely superb.
Special mention for Patrice Evra who just gets better and better with every game - seriously, after Ronaldo, he's probably the second most skilful player in the team (loving his body swerves and fancy footwork). Solid display too from the much-maligned Fletch - kept his tracksuit on and stayed well away from the pitch. That's more like it Dazza!
To Red Terry, who wonders why we aren't scoring 7-8 goals...Well, we haven't played Derby County yet. Or Slavia Prague. Or Besiktas. Seriously, the Derby game at Old Trafford could be an absolute bloodbath if current form holds for both clubs.
To Steve from Glossop, who agrees with the writer of this MEN piece that Hughes "ticks all the boxes"...He ticks one box - sentimentality toward a former Red Devil. He's an excellent manager, don't get me wrong, and he's done good things at Blackburn, who are lucky to have him. But getting Wales to modestly overachieve, and qualifying for a few UEFA Cups...sorry, but that's not going to cut it here. We have become one of serveal European-based mega-clubs of world football, whose sides are representative of the best talents not just from the surrounding area, but of the entire world. Good god, our roster right now is amazing, and a team like Blackburn would be lucky to have a single player good enough to make our squad. The difference between Blackburn and United is like the difference between Accrington Stanley and Blackburn. "Success" at one does not adequately prepare you for the other.
Consider what Sir Alex accomplished before becoming our manager. He took a small unheralded club - similar to Blackburn - and didn't get them to come in consistently right behind the big two, good enough for a couple of short trips to Europe (beat MyPa, lost to Larissa this year). He won them a cabinet full of silverware - both at home and in Europe. And in Sir Alex's 21 years, the stature of our club has only grown, so I'd like to think that the standards for our next boss will be even higher. SAF has grown this club into something far greater than it was even in Hughes' day.
And it's a joy to watch. I'm ecxcited about this season. And I certainly didn't mean to vent at you, Steve from Glossop - I just don't want our next managerial search, whenever it might come, to be conducted liek, say....the FA's, because we've all seen how that's turned out. As SAF has shown in culling the squad over the years....there's no room for sentiment in football.