Man United thrashed West Bromwich, EPL roundup

Wayne Rooney continued his remarkable goalscoring run as Manchester United kept the pressure on Chelsea and Liverpool with a 4-0 victory over West Bromwich at Old Trafford on Saturday.
Cristiano Ronaldo, Dimitar Berbatov and Nani were also on the mark for United as Sir Alex Ferguson’s side came up with the perfect response to victories from leaders Chelsea and second placed Liverpool earlier in the day.
Rooney, so impressive in England’s World Cup victories over Kazakhstan
and Belarus last week, also had what appeared a perfectly valid first half strike ruled out by referee Mark Halsey.
But that hardly mattered when the United forward extended his extraordinary scoring sequence to eight goals in the last six games for club and country.
A golden period of three goals in 15 minutes started in the 56th minute when United broke out of defence, Berbatov sprung Rooney with a pass from the halfway line and the forward powered into Albion territory, easily sidestepping Ryan Donk, before beating the keeper with an unstoppable near post shot.
In the 69th minute, any lingering hope Albion had of rescuing a point from their visit disappeared when Ronaldo doubled the home team’s lead.
Again, the goal showcased United at their most devastating and lethal best, hitting Albion on the counter-attack with Darren Fletcher's short pass beinghelped into the path of Ronaldo by Rooney and the Portugal winger easily scored the goal.
Two minutes further on, and Berbatov netted a goal, nonchalantly turning in the ball at the far post after Jonas Olsson had failed to deal with Nani’s low cross. Nani completed the rout on the stroke of normal time, turning in Rooney’s far post cross after Ryan Giggs and Berbatov had launched another flowing attack.
On Sunday, Hull City gatecrashed the Premier League’s top four again with a 1-0 home defeat of West Ham United thanks to Michael Turner’s 51st minute goal.

EPL results for 18th, 19th, 20th October'08

Saturday 18th October

Chelsea 5 - 0 Middlesbrough
Arsenal 3 - 1 Everton
Liverpool 3 - 2 Wigan Athletic
Manchester United 4 -0 West Bromwich Albion
Aston Villa 0 - 0 Portsmouth
Bolton Wanderers 0 - 0 Blackburn Rovers
Fulham 0 - 0 Sunderland

Sunday 19th October

Hull City 1 - 0 West Ham United
Stoke City 2 - 1 Tottenham Hotspur

Monday 20th October

New Castle United 2 - 2 Manchester City

Newcastle secured 1-1 draw against Birmingham

Michael Owen’s secondhalf goal allayed Newcastle manager Kevin Keegan’s relegation fears in securing a 1-1 Premiership draw at Birmingham. England coach Fabio Capello watched Owen show his predatory instincts in front of goal as he levelled matters 10 minutes into the second half on Monday with his seventh goal of the campaign. James McFadden had given Birmingham a deserved half-time lead but it was a different story after the break when the Magpies looked the more menacing. The Scot punished some poor defending to put the Blues ahead but the visitors were much improved in the second half to grab their equaliser through Owen. Mc-Fadden pounced on an error by Abdoulaye Faye after 33 minutes before beating Steve Harper — but he admitted he did not think the goal would stand. Keegan made four changes and fielded an attack-minded line-up. Strikers Mark Viduka and Obafemi Martins were handed their first starts under Keegan alongside Owen in what looked like being a 4-3-3 system. Joey Barton and Geremi also came into the starting line-up while omitted were Alan Smith, Damien Duff, Charles N’Zogbia and the injured James Milner. Blues boss Alex McLeish made just the one change from the side beaten 4-2 at Portsmouth last week with McFadden recalled in place of Mauro Zarate. McFadden quickly made his presence felt for the home side. His dummy allowed Fabrice Muamba to make a good break down the right flank and his teasing cross was headed clear by Steven Taylor. Then the former Everton player unleashed a 20-yard drive which took a slight deflection off Habib Beye and flashed only a couple of feet wide of Steve Harper’s goal. Then after 33 minutes McFadden broke the deadlock with his ninth goal of the campaign — and his fourth for Blues since his six million pound move from Everton. There appeared little danger when David Murphy lofted the ball in the box but McFadden was able to turn Faye before clipping the ball wide of Harper into the corner of the net. After 50 minutes Owen — unmarked 10 yards out — tried to curl the ball past Taylor but the Birmingham goalkeeper made an excellent reflex save to deny him at the expense of a corner. However, Owen was not to be denied and after 56 minutes he levelled.