Manchester United brutalize Hull City at home.. Thanks to 4 wonderful goals from Wayne Rooney

Wayne has scored 20 goals so far this season!

Manchester United 4-0 Hull City

Old Trafford

Goals: All 4 were scored by Wayne Rooney (8', 82', 86', 90)

United go on top of the Premier League table after winning in a very stunning fashion against Hull city at home. It was a really intriguing contest between the two teams with Hull City constantly breaking United's possession and looking dangerous at times too.

This was Rooney's fourth hat-trick, the last one coming against Porstmouth last year in November. He scored a hat-trick on his Champions League debut in 2004. He has also scored a hat-trick against Bolton Wanderers a few years ago.

With this win, United go on top with Arsenal and Chelsea behind. Now all the 3 teams have equal Goal difference (=34) and have exceeded 50 goals so far this season. All is going good for United. According to me, whoever hits form at this stage of the season takes the title. Now what United needs is a significant run of victories...

United have a huge uphill task of defeating Arsenal next weekend (31st January, 2009 - Sunday) at their very home to cement their top position. On the other hand, I will be hoping Chelsea loses a few games ahead. Chelsea has a a very challenging month ahead. They face Birmingham City the coming Wednesday. They have highly crucial games in February. They face Arsenal on 7th Feb and Manchester City 20 days later. But the sad news is that both the games are at Stamford Bridge, which leaves both the visiting teams with a huge task.

Now moving our focus back to today's game and stop thinking about future fixtures, I have plenty to remark on United's performance today. They were really menacing out there and greatly urged and motivated by Sir Alex to go there and grab a win. They've scored a total of 7 goals against Hull City this season. The minnows have been really badly beaten this time.

So who played for United today? Van Der Sar was in the box this afternoon. United had Rio Ferdinand back from injury who was supported by Jonathan Evans as a Central Defender. Rafael and Evra played as right back and left back respectively. Fergie played Fletcher and Scholes as Central mid-fielders and Park on the left and NANI! (surprisingly) as a winger too! But no doubt Nani was awesome and those 4 goals came somewhat due to his rare extra-ordinary performance too. He justified his £15 million transfer fee from Sporting Lisbon in 2007. Michael Owen (another shocking player) was partnered with Wayne Rooney up front to completely murder Hull City!

Some briefing on goals: Wayne Rooney opened the scoring from a lovely 8th minute goal. It could have been easily from Paul Scholes who shooted from a good 30 yard (maybe more) distance. The goalie managed to get a hand on it but Wayne Rooney did no mistake to poach the ball home very vigilantly and not hastily as he sometimes does. Whenever Wayne plays in a composed manner and doesn't shoot in a rush, he scores! I hope he remains fit throughout the season because United needs him... I won't be surprised if he gets 40+ goals this season.

The last 3 goals came in the last 10 minutes! The second goal came after Nani's free kick tremored the bar and Hull City still gave away the possesion to United. Nani then played wonderfully to Gibson who then passed to Wayne who was ever-ready to score. Rooney striked yet again and this time it was hammered past Myhill- the superman goalie!

The hat-trick goal came off from a wonderful header set by the fantastic winger - Nani. The 4th goal was absolutely fantastic! Berbatov set Rooney up with a lovely flick in the box and Rooney actually murdered the ball into the goal beating 3 players; the ball went right between the two defenders and beated Myhill too. Stunning effort!

The serious part of the game came in the 48th minute of the match when the the Linesman was tripped down by Craig Fagan when Johny Evans was defending the ball and was shoulder to shoulder with Craig. Incidently Craig was later battered by Rio Ferdinand (this wasn't seen by the Ref BTW) and funny enough, Fagan was later booked as well! Bad day for the lad.

Player Ratings:

Van Der Sar: 7- Made a couple of great saves, but otherwise didn't get that many chances to impress really.

Rio Ferdinand: 6.5 - I personally didn't admire his knock on Craig Faegan when darren Gibson had a wonderful chance to score. Had the Ref seen the offence, he would have been off I tell you.

Evans: 6- Again, looked vulnerable at times. Nearly conceded a goal after a stupid header back to Van Der Sar.

Rafael: 6 - Was Ok through out the game

Evra: 7 - The all-rounder. Did what he was supposed to do at the right instants.

Nani: 8 - I would like to congratulate him on his comeback after missing so many games. He was absolutely amazing.. I wish he had scored from the free-kick.. he certainly looked like Cristiano Ronaldo. I'm sure Ronaldo will be happy to see him perform well.

Fletcher: 7.5 - Typical good performance. Lived upto the expectations.

Scholes: 8.5 - He was the main guy leading United's attack, could have scored from the wonderful shoot in the 7th minute when Rooney poached the goal and did the job. He really was on top of his game and that's why he's still here at United even though he's 35 and really should have retired had he wished to!

Park 5.5- I was shocked he made it to first 11 this afternoon. He really played below average and should have been sub-ed by Valencia. But I think Fergie wanted some fresh legs against Man City in Carling Cup's 2nd leg.

Owen - 7 - Had two glorious chances to score. Guess what? (the guess is easy) He missed both the chances. His passing was amazing, he was vigilant. But can someone explain to him that you're really meant to shoot with a bit more power. I think he should try some Feng Shui to be honest!

Berba: 7.5 - Was substituted for Owen and really deserved to score when some people said he was off-side. But he proved to the crowd that he can prove to be a valuable substitute with his clever flicks and can easily outrun tired defenders. He flicked an amazing ball to Rooney with the help of which Rooney scored his 20th goal of the season!

Wayne Rooney - 10 - I rarely give 10/10 but this guy really deserved it! He scored his 20th goal of the 2009-2010 campaign.. He deserves to score 30 more!

A vote of thanks to Nani who was awesome today! I wished he had scored today.. He really deserved to score.

We have a couple of important games coming up next week:

United vs Manchester City

2nd Leg of Carling Cup Semi-final

27th January, 2010

KO 8.00 PM GMT

Arsenal vs Manchester United

Premier League

31st January, 2010

KO 4.00 PM GMT

So join us for the build up to the games and Hope United wins both of them.

GLORY GLORY MAN UNITED AND THE REDS KEEP MARCHING ON ON ON !!

Rooney's Hat-trick ruins Avram Grant's reception to the new club and slaughters the Pompeys!

MANCHESTER UNITED 4-1 POMPEY

Fratton Park, Portsmouth

3 PM GMT K.O.

Wayne Rooney wins a penalty at Pompey! Thanks to a lightening run from Valencia.

Today's game seemed to be a contrast, where United boss wasn't allowed to be on the touch line, the newly assigned Pompey boss couldn't make much of the opportunity to level off the UEFA Champions league final's bad memories.

Pompey enjoyed excellent spells of possession in the midfield and the last third in the beginning. They stole the ball from United many times. The possession till half time was United 46% and Pompey 54%.

Scholes did an amazing job with two lovely strikes on goal; both deflected and won corners which United didnt have seem to take control of that effectively. Valencia looked electric with his lovely passes and vigourous runs, he helped Rooney win a penalty for United which Rooney took responsibly. United 1 up at 25 minutes.

Then came a strong reply from the Minnows. They took charge of the game until they won the disastrous penalty. It was apparently because Tomasz Kuszack probably charged one Pompey player. However, TV replays showed a completely different story. The United goalie didnt even touch any Pompey player! So it was definitely a bad decision. Paul Scholes had a very heated conversation with the referee (who was the 4th referee when S. Alex Ferguson fired got the 2-match ban.) on the decision of the penalty. The decision didnt alter though!

The ugliness wasn't over yet. Fletcher got involved in a very non-footballic incident with Pompey mid-fielder Boateng who initially pushed Fletcher. In response. Fletcher pulled his shirt and made him fall on the ground as well. This action certainly obeyed "Newton's 3rd law of Motion" if nothing else.!. It was really disastrous to watch, nonetheless.

Vidic got a yellow card for sliding off Pompey striker Dindane and and holding Piquionee's shirt.

Neville accompanied the referees after the First half to half a word.

6th minute into the Second Half saw a lovely diagonal pass by Valencia which was cleared by the defender.

Things got lot worse as it started raining and made the setting very soggy. The weather reminded me of the Chelsea - United UEFA final penalties; however United here were in total control.

Soone came the 3rd goal for United. This time Giggs was tripped over by Piquionne at the edge of the box which was clearly seen and responded by the Ref. United were all smiles as Rooney completes his deserving Hat-trick taking his goal tally to 11 so far this season (not very far away from Defoe)

On the other hand, Valencia was absolutely stunning today. His runs were full of confidence and he just lacked perfect crossing or was met by some excellent defending. In my opinion, he deserved a goal in the 77th minute when Rooney passed a wonderful pass to the Equidarian who crossed nearly perfectly untl the ball was sent for a Corner in the Pompey's final third.

7 vs 1.. But the Ref. has the VETO power!

Every decision from Ref is criticised by players.. not good. But this penalty against United was pointless and controversial!

The Polish goalie stopped a great strike which was impossible for Vidic to tackle on.. This was the 2nd great save from him.

United made a 76th min substitute when anderson replaced carrick. Anderson responded quickly to this opportunity as he fired a ball from the edge of box, and nearly missed the goal..

Giggs made it four for United as he sent a perfect free-kick into the goal!! He celebrated his 100th Premier League goal. Boy! what a win for United... It was a nice curl into the bottom left corner of the goal. Goalie had no chance... Do we need Ronaldo?

Fergie was still enjoying sitting in the executive box! with Gill. He also got an opportunity to talk on phone.

Fergie enjoying the game from the Business executive box.

Tomasz Kuszcak made a wonderful 3rd save by responding quickly to Boateng's brilliant volley which failed to compensate for the 4 goals as scored remained 4-1. The ball hit Kuszcak's hand and then rebound from the cross bar.!.

The dirty game ended superbly, United reigned over the second half, scoring 3 goals (2 of which coming from Wayne Rooney - the Hat-trick hero!) For a record, United had 6 shots on target, 4 of which found the target. The overall possession was 50-50.

Avram Grant's entry did make United struggle for the 1st half but the 2nd half performance was typical United!

Glory Glory Man United... See you before the Spurs Carling cup build up!