Rooney’s double sink Villa
Published:Wednesday | February 2, 2011 | 9:31 AM
Wayne Rooney scored twice to help Manchester United maintain their five-point lead at the top of the English Premier League table with a 3-1 win over Aston Villa yesterday.
Rooney took just 50 seconds to get on the score sheet at Old Trafford and bagged the second just before the break.
Villa's £24 million man Darren Bent reduced the deficit when he slid a 58th-minute shot past Van der Sar but United sealed their win five minutes later when Nemanja Vidic fired home after Rooney's lay-off in the box.
Arsenal kept the pressure on in second place with 2-1 win over Everton at the Emirates but they had to come from behind to do it after Louis Saha's controversial opener gave the visitors the lead at the break.
Chelsea's new big-money signings Fernando Torres and David Luiz were absent from the Stadium of Light but it hardly mattered as Carlo Ancelotti's men recovered from losing an early goal to canter to a 4-2 win over Sunderland.
Substitute Marc-Antoine Fortune struck with a 79th-minute header to rescue West Brom and leave Roberto Martinez's Wigan in the relegation zone after a 2-2 draw at The Hawthorns.