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| February 06, 2007 | Tuesday | Muharram 17, 1428 |
Man United rattle Spurs with 4-goal blitz
LONDON, Feb 5: Manchester United rattled in three goals in 10 minutes either side of halftime to set up a 4-0 victory at Tottenham Hotspur and restore their six-point lead over Chelsea in the Premier League on Sunday.
A Cristiano Ronaldo penalty at the end of the first half, goals by Nemanja Vidic and Paul Scholes soon after and a 77th minute Ryan Giggs effort completed a comfortable win.
The victory takes United to 63 points, six clear of Chelsea, who won 1-0 at Charlton Athletic on Saturday. Liverpool are third on 50 after they were held to a goalless home draw by Everton with Arsenal fourth on 46 following their 1-1 draw at Middlesbrough.
Tottenham, who have not beaten United home or away for 12 games and have now lost six in a row against them at home, remain 11th on 33 points.
United struggled to make any inroads in a low-key first half but got the breakthrough in the 45th minute.
Ronaldo went down under a challenge from Steed Malbranque and though the French midfielder claimed innocence, the referee awarded the penalty. Ronaldo took it and scored confidently for his 10th goal in the last 10 league games.
United doubled the lead three minutes after the restart when Vidic made a determined run to meet a corner by former Spurs midfielder Michael Carrick and scored with a firm glancing header.
Six minutes later Ronaldo moved effortlessly past Lee Young-pyo to hit the byline before crossing low for the impressive Scholes to bundle the ball in from point-blank range.
Tottenham were shell-shocked but did manage a couple of half-chances that both fell to Dimitar Berbatov. The Bulgarian hit the first straight at Edwin van der Sar and headed the second over the bar.
United then raced to the other end and substitute Louis Saha fed Giggs, who beat the offside trap and fired home the fourth.
United lost Van der Sar to a broken nose after being caught by Robbie Keane's knee but even with defender John O'Shea as stand-in goalkeeper for the last 10 minutes Tottenham could not trouble them.
Results:
Played on Sunday:
Tottenham Hotspur 0 Manchester United 4
Played on Saturday:
Aston Villa 1 West Ham United 0
Blackburn Rovers 2 Sheffield United 1
Charlton Athletic 0 Chelsea 1
Fulham 2 Newcastle United 1
Liverpool 0 Everton 0
Manchester City 0 Reading 2
Middlesbrough 1 Arsenal 1
Watford 0 Bolton Wanderers 1
Wigan Athletic 1 Portsmouth 0
—Reuters
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