Manchester Utd 2 Sunderland 0:MANCHESTER UNITED are enjoying the view from the summit of the English Premier League. They were far too strong for a Sunderland side who will be grateful one of the more one-sided games imaginable in the Premier League did not result in an even more harrowing experience.

Alex Ferguson’s men accumulated enough chances once Dimitar Berbatov had opened the scoring in the fifth minute to have easily emulated the seven goals they put past Blackburn four weeks ago – and that was just inside the opening half an hour.

Instead, they had to make do with only one more, Berbatov’s effort taking a large and decisive deflection off Anton Ferdinand 12 minutes into the second half.

In truth, the scoreline told a deceptive story. Anderson hit the crossbar, Berbatov jabbed a shot against the post, Sunderland’s goalkeeper Craig Gordon saved his side more times than he will care to remember and Wayne Rooney will reflect on a number of chances to score his first goal from open play for United for nine months. This was United at their exhilarating best and Sunderland, with key players missing, were outclassed from the moment Rooney chipped a cross for Berbatov to head the home side into the lead.

Rooney had credentials to rival Berbatov as the game’s outstanding performer, although he was not the only one. Anderson, in particular, was exceptional at times, culminating in a wonderfully deceptive pass in the build-up to the second goal.

Park Ji-sung made up for the absence of the injured Nani and Ryan Giggs demonstrated some of his enduring brilliance.

Sunderland were poor opponents. Steve Bruce’s side never threatened to put in the kind of performance that saw them beat Chelsea 3-0 at Stamford Bridge last month.

They did not manage a shot on target until the 79th minute and the substitute, David Meyler, was fortunate not to be sent off for a dangerously high lunge on Rafael only four minutes after coming on.

Afterwards, Ferguson insisted he is not concerned at Wayne Rooney’s continuing goal drought. The Manchester United striker has still not scored for his club in open play since March.

“Wayne had a couple of tries today,” reflected the United boss. “He was very unlucky with the chip and there were a couple of shots saved by the goalkeeper. He is getting there. The important thing is he is playing well. That is refreshing.”

Rooney is making a positive contribution. It was his excellent chip that set Berbatov up for his fifth-minute opener, although, after blowing a succession of first-half chances, United’s record signing required the assistance of a massive deflection off Ferdinand to seal the points after the break.

“Dimitar could have scored four or five today. He had some terrific opportunities. I was disappointed with the score at half-time,” said Ferguson.

“We hit the bar and the post. Their ’keeper has made a couple of good saves and we played some really good football. It was exciting stuff, but then we just seemed to go into third gear.”

Part of the reason for that perhaps was the knowledge United’s opponents tomorrow, Birmingham City, had their feet up following the postponement of their game at Everton.

Birmingham boss Alex McLeish took the opportunity to watch Ferguson’s side in action, although he is set to be greeted with the presence of Nani at St Andrew’s, the Portugal winger set to recover from the hip injury that kept him out of yesterday’s encounter. Darren Fletcher was also sidelined with a heavy cold.

He too could come into contention though as Ferguson intends to make a couple of changes to his starting line-up.

“We have come into good form,” he said. “In the last few weeks we have played some very good stuff. We are getting that consistency, particularly in our defending.

“We are looking solid at the back. These are good signs for us. It is an important time to get that. Birmingham will be fresh. Going down there is always a difficult place to go to. They have always had a strong home record and are difficult to beat on their own ground.

“We are aware of that. I will make a couple of changes to freshen that part up. Hopefully, we will get the result we want.”

Guardian Service