Rooney hits three for Man U as rivals slip up

LONDON (AP):

Wayne Rooney's hat-trick kept Manchester United on track to win the Premier League with a 4-2 comeback win over West Ham, while title contenders Arsenal and Chelsea both dropped points.

Second-place Arsenal could only draw 0-0 with 10-man Blackburn and defending champions Chelsea needed Didier Drogba to equalise for a 1-1 draw at mid-table Stoke as Rooney's first hat-trick for 14 months helped the leaders bounce back from a 2-0 half-time deficit to boost their chances of a record 19th English championship.

Liverpool who shares the record of 18 titles with United, lost 2-1 against a West Bromwich Albion side led by their former manager, Roy Hodgson, while Tottenham's hopes of a second straight top-four finish were hit by a 0-0 draw at Wigan.

Chelsea have eight games left and are 11 points behind United, who have played one more game. Second-place Arsenal are seven points off the lead and also have a game in hand.

Salvaged seven points

United have trailed 2-0 away from home three times this season and salvaged seven points from those matches.

"We played like champions," United manager Alex Ferguson said. "It was a real championship performance as far as I'm concerned."

Two penalty kicks by Mark Noble put relegation-threatened West Ham 2-0 ahead by the 25th minute at Upton Park, but Mexico striker Javier Hernandez replaced Patrice Evra for the second half and fellow forward Dimitar Berbatov went on for Park Ji-sung to help United get back in the game.

Rooney curled in a 65th-minute free kick for just his eighth league goal of the season and struck his 100th in the English top flight eight minutes later, creating room on the edge of the area with one touch and shooting past goalkeeper Robert Green with his next.

The England striker then scored a 79th-minute penalty following Matthew Upson's inadvertent handball and Hernandez scored from Ryan Giggs' cross with six minutes left.

'We don't give up'

"We don't give up, no matter what the score," Rooney said. "We were brilliant all over the park, but even when we haven't been playing well, we have been grinding out results."

United had looked on course for a repeat of November's 4-0 League Cup defeat to West Ham after penalties awarded for a handball by Evra and a trip by Nemanja Vidic on Carlton Cole at the very edge of the area.

Arsenal dominated Blackburn and constantly threatened a breakthrough but Blackburn's defense managed to thwart almost all the Gunners' advances to secure a vital point in the fight against relegation.

Jack Wilshere passed up an opportunity when he chose to pass back to Andrei Arshavin rather than shoot, with Laurent Koscielny heading the resulting corner kick at goalkeeper Paul Robinson.