MANCHESTER United cruised to a Boxing Day victory over Sunderland with big guns Wayne Rooney, Louis Saha and Cristiano Ronaldo all firing.
Black Cats boss Roy Keane could only watch on from the sidelines as his former side completed a comfortable win.
Rooney opened the scoring before Saha put the Reds in control. Just before the break Ronaldo extended the lead with a stunning free-kick, with Saha claiming his second from the penalty spot late on.
United head back across the Pennines having reached the mid point of the season firmly in the title race, while the man who for more than 12 years led their charge for glory on the pitch has just 14 points in the bag and a long haul towards safety.
Despite leaving Ryan Giggs and Anderson at home and Carlos Tevez and Patrice Evra on the bench, Sir Alex Ferguson was able to field a side which had simply too much class, pace and guile for Keane’s team, which included for the first time 17-year-old striker Martyn Waghorn.
Where Tomasz Kuszczak had only one save to make in the first-half when he tipped over Ross Wallace’s 40th-minute drive, opposite number Craig Gordon was peppered throughout.
Had he not pulled off fine saves from two Ronaldo free-kicks and a Wes Brown header, United could have been six goals to the good by half-time.
As it was, they were 3-0 up courtesy of some scintillating passing and movement, as well as top-class finishing.
Rooney set the ball rolling on 20 minutes when, after full-back Brown had played a one-two with Ronaldo, he slid the striker in to fire nonchalantly past Gordon.
Blistering
Rooney turned provider 10 minutes later, accepting Ronaldo’s pass from the United half before cutting inside Wallace to pick out Saha at the near post.
But it was the Portugal international who set the 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.
What is your verdict on the game? Have your say.
Sunderland 0 United 4
December 26, 2007
Comments
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nice to see Saha back on the scoresheet!
Again, rotation worked very well, now we have many rested players for the WH game . Rooney and Ronaldo are MOM . I want to hear some comments about Carrick, for me he didn´t played well going forward.
Easy game for utd.Rooney brilliant,works hard & outstanding skills easily best player on show.If we factor in games missed through injury would be in front of ronaldo in scoring.also seems to have addressed attitude and anger in contact situations, got to say that if Ronaldo played in Spain or Italy would have walked away with all awards for the past two years,easier leagues and far less competitive than EPL.
wat do u guys think abou t taking ronaldo off ac milan's hands?
Easy victory, nice addition to our goal difference and good to see some squad players getting a game as well. I thought Rooney was outstanding. Saha is slowly getting back to form but I was a bit disappointed with Carrick's performance. Against such opposition I would have expected him to impose his class but he never did.Maybe he's lacking games as well.
So far so good though.
Very good performance today and I find it very hard to find any flaws. e simply outclassed Keano's side. Mervyn, I wouldnt go for the Brazilian Ronaldo, hes too fat and besides, why go for the fake namesake when we've got the real one ;). Our Ronaldo's only 22 and is a class act. Could he be the best Number 7 ever to put on the shirt? He's going th right way about it.
Also it was nice to see united get their free flowing scoring game back and it was a relief to see Rooney and Saha on the scoresheet again. The return of Park, who I must say looked lively is also a massive plus for us and I can see him possibly starting next game.
Next up are West Ham away, a tricky encounter if you ask me; they did the double over us last season. But not too worry, their main player is on our side now... :P and with the return of Anderson, Hargreaves et al things are looking so much better than at the start of the season.
Maestro, Genius call him what you want: Ronaldo is simply class.
Anyone notice that Ronaldo freekick has improve a lot & become more effective than b4? Previously, when he step up to take the freekick, i've a very low expectation, bcoz, most of the time the ball will hit the wall or went way off the target and wasted..
Today 3 freekicks, and each of them hit the target.
Perhaps, practice makes perfect, and well done i must say to him. Hopefully he has mastered the technic, so we can expect more of those unique trademark and brilliant freekick like what we've seen today.
Louis HAHA finally scoring again, doubt it will last long, and ronaldo actually hitting every free kick on target, 2 savage performances from him, hopefully he keeps it up and did anyone notice his lack of dramatics today? maybe hes finally coped onto himself. great performance from rooney hopefully that goal will put him back on form, Carrick was useless, hope hes gone by the end of january, the lads a waste of space
Note to Sir Alex, PLEASE LET HULL CITY KEEP FRAIZER CAMPBELL UNTIL THE END OF THE SEASON PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE. Well done for the win today too.
Doesn't matter how much the guy does but most of you still just mention the negative parts of his game, while the excuse for Rooney not to be top scorer as he should by being a forward is because he was injured, than the same should go for Saha. Rooney haven't been playing well and that´s the reason why he haven't scored. Rooney haven't proved anything yet both at club level and specially at national team level. I see him as a overhyped british player like Owen was/is. I find really ridicolous that some of you can't hide the fact that you really want Rooney to do much better than CR. Can't understand that because it's a club that you're supporting and not your national team. I don't care if Freddy Adu scores more than Nuno gomes at Benfica, I wish he does.
I like Rooney as he seems to be a nice guy but as a football player he is far away to be as good as Ronaldo and for some of you it hurts. Grow up and enjoy the fact that you have in your club the biggest talent in European football and I go as far as to say in world football. bunch of moaners.
We love you Pompey :D
Hopefully L'Arse will also slip up to Everton away on Saturday!
Top of the league, lets hope it stays like this until the end of the season.
Up the Reds!
Thank god, at last united grabed the 1st place from arsenal, and united best performance is yet to be seen, but sir alex must sign up with 2 more players to be able to have the best squad and i suggest philip lhaam from germany and berbatove
if he does that united will be invensable, wont you agree with me?
ChrisMUFC9000, with Scholes and Hargreaves injured then, who would YOU play alongside Anderson - Fletcher or O'Shea?
Riquelminho i get what you are saying but he's no longer overweight (actually got abs now). r7 is currently the world's best but r9 has much to offer especially seeing that manucho probably wont be able to play this season. i was thinking that maybe he could do a larsson + he's not cup tied (he's world class remember the hat trick?)
i think we are packed in midfield now, maybe we need to offload someone. hargreaves should be rested until the reading match up, hopefully these ridiculous injuries will stop popping up then.
does anybody know if the twins are coming into the reserves, u18s or first team?
Has Carrick`s gone off the boil lately? As a midfield general, he should be spraying more adventurous and creative passes. I thought he has been very inhibitive in his movement and ideas.
Pok,S`pore
Could it be that today, boxing day, was remembered in United folk lore as "that day", when United went top and stayed until season's end, went on to win the CL Final and FA Cup in between?This team is starting to look
that capable and that deep in talent to do it.
Up the Reds
Mervyn Watson,
Ronaldo from Milan? No thanks. That would be funny with our "there's only one Ronaldo" chant, however !
Rooney was terrific today. Saha had a striker's game, worked hard up front, great 1st goal and good penalty, he should be happy with that, although to look at his face after both his goals, he sure didn't look happy. Wonder why? Now, for me, the absoulute worst man on the pitch for us was the son of SAF, yet again, it beggars belief how SAF can keep the faith with him. Poor passing, tackling a joke, no vision, looked totally clueless. FFS sake, get rid. Carrick, better in the second half, but our mid field looked pretty much rbbish with those two. Let's hope Scholes gets back soon and raring to go because then we'll have some real options. Park looked really good, doesn't seem to have lost his enthusiasm and work rate at all. Good to have him back. What's the story with OH? Have we got another balsa boy on our hands?
RONALDO-MUFC...OOZING WITH PURE CLASS,ronaldo-AC Milan...pure washout...
Guys,all teams have failings,do not knock down MUFC players when they do have bad games,remember that United wins tally are very far superior than the lost tally.Give the players a break,give them a boost.
Seamus, Vanisle - you were spot on re your comments on son of SAF. I really wonder how the coaching staff cannot pinpoint that Fletcherinha is PL standard and definitely not at the level of the other Man Utd players. Sometimes I notice that the other players are hesitant to pass to Fletch during the match. SAF, please promise that you ship him out to Brum next week!!
How do we know Brazilian Ronaldo's problems are behind him? He still hasn't proced anything at AC Milan and I think he is no where near the player he was now. IMO a better proposition would be Trezeguet of Juve. Class finisher, exactly what we need in the short term in case any of any of our stikers get injured *cough*Saha*cough*. Trezeguet is still a class act, wouldnt be cup tied and would provide that extra edge to our attacking like Larsson did last season. Would be far cheaper too.
I find it strange when people keeps criticising Fletcher. He is doing a good job for the team and the honour is to the staff to use him well and help him improve his game.However we all know is not a 1st choice as Oshea.Carrick can do more as well by bringing the ball more forward but i am starting to put the blame on the staff not asking him to be more positive on his game.Excellent win yesterday bearing in mind that we manage to rest Giggs,Tevez,Anderson,Evra,VDS and we gave half hour to Park who really looks good.I hope some fans will not turn on him as soon as he has a bad game.
Regarding the stupid idea to sign Ronaldo what is the difference with Saha. Ronaldo is injured since he moved to Milan and cannot even get a game when fit in front of 36 years old Inzhagi and a poor Gilardino.Please we must start leaving Saha alone as he might be back for a long run in the team.
I don't think we need to sign anyone for this season. We will have Foster,Neville,Silvestre,Park,Scholes and Saha all back and being involved over the next 4-8 weeks. The one player we must sign for next season is Benzema at Lyon. He is 20 years old and he controls games now, pure class. On the issue of Carrick he is a great forth choice player after Hargreaves,Anderson and Scholes, do you really want O'shea or Giigs in there? I know i don't.
Absolutely loving this Christmas period, to date. United played brilliantly yesterday without over-exerting themselves. Hopefully, Van der Sar will be back for the West Ham game.
United top of the league
United United top of the league
Think I'll have some left-over turkey and stuff myself senseless.
Ease up there Valtinho!
Most of us recognise that we have one of the very best players in the world in Ronaldo. Practically all united fans love the guy, I mean the most resounding songs at matches are about Ronaldo. But we would also love Rooney to live up to his potential, if he does he will also be phenomenal. A couple of years ago, Rooney outshone Ronaldo on a regular basis; now the roles have been reversed. Yeah of course Rooney gets greater coverage, I mean he's England's great hope. But that's from the press, not the fans.
Anyway guys, not sure what people are negative about. We're top of the league for the first time this season, and we just hammered a team away from home without half our team. I wonder who the London press considers the best team in the country now!