Man United in seventh heaven

LONDON (AP):

Dimitar Berbatov's five-goal burst enabled Manchester United to claim the provisional Premier League lead with a 7-1 demolition of Blackburn yesterday, while Arsenal's title charge was reignited with a 4-2 win at Aston Villa.  Berbatov took just two minutes to end a 10-match goal drought stretching back to September.

But while Nani and Park Ji-sung also found the net against Blackburn, Wayne Rooney couldn't find his first goal from open play since March for United.

Arsenal climbed up to second - two points behind United - after withstanding a second-half Villa fightback to end a two-match losing streak in all competitions.

But champions Chelsea could return to the top if they win at Newcastle today.

Manchester City stayed fourth despite being held 1-1 at Stoke - a third draw in four for the league's biggest spenders.

There were wins for the bottom teams, with West Ham beating Wigan 3-1 and Wolverhampton defeating Sunderland 3-2.

In yesterday's other matches, Bolton fought back from two goals down to draw 2-2 with Blackpool, West Bromwich won 4-1 at Everton and Birmingham drew 1-1 at Fulham.

Manchester United's emphatic victory helped to set a Premier League record for the number of goals scored on a single day - 36 - according to Sky Sports.

The first came after 72 seconds when poor Blackburn defending allowed Nani to cross from the left, Rooney to flick on with a header and Berbatov to convert from six metres.

Rooney also had a hand in the second goal, playing through Park in the 23rd, before Berbatov capitalised on Pascal Chimbonda's poor back pass five minutes later.

Berbatov's third came two minutes into the second half after Nani cut in from the right and sent the ball back from the byline.

Rhythm and tempo

Nani quickly made it 5-0 after latching onto Anderson's pass. Berbatov swept in his fourth before Anderson set him up for a fifth eight minutes later.

Blackburn's consolation came in the 83rd when Christopher Samba rose to head in Josh Morris's cross from six metres.

"The rhythm and tempo were not good enough in the last few weeks, but it was today," United manager Alex Ferguson said. "It was a fantastic achievement by Berbatov and in my time, I've only seen Andy Cole achieve that here. It was important he got off the mark early because he hadn't scored in 10 games. He combined with Wayne well and they interchanged brilliantly."

There were six goals from the lunchtime kickoff at Villa Park. Andrey Arshavin scored one and set up Samir Nasri's volley as Arsenal led 2-0 at half-time.

But Ciaran Clark put Villa back into the game in the 52nd and then headed in another after Marouane Chamakh scored a third for Arsenal.

The Gunners made sure of the victory in stoppage time when Jack Wilshere scored his first league goal for the north London club.

Villa have collected one point from its last three league matches.

At Stoke, midfielder Matthew Etherington stunned Manchester City with an injury-time equaliser, striking past Joe Hart after receiving a back-heel from Tuncay Sanli.

Micah Richards thought he had scored an 81st minute winner for City when he latched on to a ball from James Milner and sent a shot into the corner.

"We deserved to win," City manager Roberto Mancini said. "We tried to play football. If we continue to play like this we will win games."

Wins have proved more elusive for West Ham, which ended a two-month run without a victory at Upton Park, yesterday.

The match had been billed by the West Ham board as the "save our season game" and Valon Behrami put the Hammers ahead in the 34th when he nipped in to take advantage of some hesitation in the Wigan defence.

Victor Obinna added another in the 56th and Scott Parker netted West Ham's third before Tom Cleverley's consolation.

Standings

It was not enough to lift West Ham off the bottom of the standings as Sylvan Ebanks-Blake produced an 89th-minute winner for Wolverhampton at home to Sunderland.

Kevin Foley put Wolves ahead five minutes into the second half, but Darren Bent and Danny Welbeck scored to swing the contest in Sunderland's favour. Stephen Hunt levelled from close range before Ebanks-Blake's winner.

• Results of matches played yesterday in Britain:

Premier League: Aston Villa 2 Arsenal 4; Bolton 2 Blackpool 2; Everton 1 West Bromwich Albion 4; Fulham 1 Birmingham 1; Manchester United 7 Blackburn 1; Stoke 1 Manchester City 1; West Ham 3 Wigan 1; Wolverhampton Wanderers 3 Sunderland 2.

League Championship: Barnsley 0 Watford 0; Bristol City 3 Sheffield United 0; Crystal Palace 1 Doncaster 0; Middlesbrough 2 Hull 2; Preston 0 Millwall 0; Queens Park Rangers 2 Cardiff 1; Reading 0 Leeds 0; Scunthorpe 0 Coventry 2; Burnley 2 Derby 1.

League One: Rochdale 1 Oldham 1.

League Two: Morecambe 1 Crewe 2

Scotland Premier League: Celtic 2 Inverness 2; Hamilton 0 St Mirren 0; Hibernian 0 St Johnstone 0; Kilmarnock 2 Aberdeen 0.