LONDON, Jan 31: French striker Louis Saha scored on his debut and Ruud van Nistelrooy struck the winner as Manchester United beat Southampton 3-2 at Old Trafford to go top of the premier league on Saturday.

Saints striker Kevin Phillips scored his side's goals either side of the break to put Southampton level after Paul Scholes had given United a two-goal lead in the 37th minute.

Van Nistelrooy then pounced in a goalmouth scramble to turn home the winner just after the hour of an exciting match in front of a record premier league crowd of 67,758 that Saints twice came close to levelling in the final minutes.

It was the Dutchman's 99th goal for the club and ensured that United, who have not lost at home to Southampton since 1988, moved one point ahead of Arsenal, who meet Manchester City at home on Sunday.

Saha, signed from Fulham for US$23.2m eight days ago, opened the scoring with a free kick, which deflected off Phillips's head, in the 18th minute after Portuguese midfielder Cristiano Ronaldo had been brought down.

In the 37th, Antti Niemi failed to hold the Frenchman's low shot from outside the box and Scholes pounced to shoot under the Finnish keeper and put United further ahead.

Southampton struck back 61 seconds later when Phillips's shot from outside the penalty area took a slight deflection off fellow striker Brett Ormerod and beat Tim Howard.

Howard was beaten again in the 53rd minute when Phillips' shot from 35 metres sneaked inside the right-hand bottom corner.

Saints' French midfielder Fabrice Fernandes was lucky not to concede a penalty on the hour when he leapt with his hands raised at a free kick by Ronaldo and the ball struck his arm.

The referee awarded a free kick on the edge of the box but then van Nistelrooy was not ruled offside when he clearly strayed forward at the kick.

Play continued and the ball came back to the Dutchman, now onside, for what proved to be the winner.

The visitors had two late chances to level the match when in the 82nd minute, Howard superbly tipped the ball over from defender Danny Higginbotham's overhead kick while Phillips missed a low cross in the six-yard box a minute later.

Southampton manager Gordon Strachan was unhappy with the new offside law in which a player drifting offside is not pulled up while he is not involved in the action.

"He might as well stay up offside," Strachan said on Sky Sports television. "You can put four people in there around the goalkeeper so when the ball comes in you can cause havoc."

United's Alex Ferguson, however, said: "Well, the new ruling's very straightforward... Unfortunately some people don't accept new rules. As long as he doesn't get an advantage immediately (he's not offside)."

Premier League

Birmingham City 1 Newcastle United 1

Charlton Athletic 1 Bolton Wanderers 2

Fulham 2 Tottenham Hotspur 1

Leeds United 0 Middlesbrough 3

Leicester City 0 Aston Villa 5

Liverpool 0 Everton 0

Manchester United 3 Southampton 2

Portsmouth 0 Wolverhampton Wanderers 0

Playing on Sunday: Arsenal v Manchester City (1605 GMT) Blackburn Rovers v Chelsea (1400).-Reuters