Manchester United 5-0 Wigan Athletic | Premier League match report

It was the day Dimitar Berbatov reminded Manchester United of the ability that saw him finish alongside Carlos Tevez as the joint winner of last season's Golden Boot. While Tevez has been on strike for Manchester City, Berbatov's continued absence has been far more perplexing, and he took this hat-trick with an expertise that made it feel faintly ludicrous it was his first league start since 24September.

Berbatov's second, in particular, was a reminder of his talent on a day when Wayne Rooney stepped aside to leave the Bulgarian to complete his hat-trick from the penalty spot and the champions recorded their second successive 5-0 win to close the gap on the leaders, Manchester City, when it comes to their respective goal differences.

They did so, however, amid a note of controversy and Wigan Athletic were certain to feel aggrieved after being left painfully vulnerable by Conor Sammon's red card six minutes before the interval. Sir Alex Ferguson's team were leading 1-0 when the referee, Phil Dowd, ruled that Sammon had swung an elbow into Michael Carrick's face. It will be remembered as the latest example of Dowd's erratic officiating Sammon had been reaching back but the contact or intent hardly represented violent play and from that point it quickly became a case of how many goals the home side could accumulate.

Berbatov had doubled their lead within two minutes, latching on to Darron Gibson's cross and holding off Antolin Alcaraz before shooting on the turn. His second involved an exquisite first touch to evade Gary Caldwell and a shot that was still rising as it hit the roof of the net. Antonio Valencia scored a fourth with a wonderful diagonal shot on the run and Rooney, a second-half substitute, allowed Berbatov to get his third after Alcaraz had tripped Park Ji-Sung inside the penalty area.

Wigan had played quite brightly until Sammon's sending-off and responded well to Park turning in the opening goal after a fine run on the left from Patrice Evra. T! he Sammo n decision, however, all but extinguished any faint hopes of rescuing the match and United can reflect on a hugely satisfying day considering they had only two senior defenders available and started with Carrick as a centre-half and Antonio Valencia at right-back.


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