Manchester United surely the way to the championship Manchester City and the others followed him to display.
Wigan Athletic 0 Manchester United 4: Sir Alex Ferguson’s most happy season in the Premier League
He scored a classic goal as Manchester United entered 2013 as they had finished the old year, with a seven-point lead at the top of the Premier League.
There was nothing special about United’s performance against a Wigan team who found life much more difficult than in their easy post-Christmas win at Aston Villa.
United were functional, confident and dominating. But I wonder whether Sir Alex Ferguson, the day after his 71st birthday, pondered where, out of all the star players he has signed and created, Van Persie fits in that order of merit?
Title rivals Manchester City rue the fact they did not use the sheikh’s money to buy him and Arsenal, when it is mentioned to them, are still on the verge of tears over his departure.
Van Persie, 29, joined United in August for £24?million and so far that investment has been worth 19 goals – with one of his very best yesterday.
Two Wigan defenders took each other out of the game and as Maynor Figueroa and James McArthur sprawled, Javier Hernandez skipped away down the right and found Van Persie with a squared pass.
Then brilliance took over. Van Persie controlled the ball with his right foot, made extra room and an angle by moving the ball to his left foot, then hit a curling shot with his right.
“Van Persie is a completely rounded footballer, his ability to make and take goals is fantastic,” said Ferguson. “His play for his first goal was absolutely magnificent.
“We knew we were getting a top player, a major player. I knew he would make the difference because of his maturity. Van Persie has great international experience, he has played for Arsenal for seven years and he came to us at the very peak of his career.”
United lost at Wigan last season, one of the nails in the coffin where their title hopes were buried, but there was never the slightest chance of that happening again. United might have a leaky defence that is the bane of Ferguson’s life, but there was nothing to debit in this performance.
Wigan have now won one of their last eight games, the virtual length of the Premier League not really an adequate measure of how far away they were from doing United any damage.
Wigan manager Roberto Martinez said it was down to tiredness, four games in 11 days, but it could have been worse.
Hernandez, apart from being the straight man for Van Persie’s 43rd-minute goal, scored twice and had two more turned down for offside. His first came in the 35th minute. Patrice Evra had a shot that, at first, he fluffed, but then forced a good save out of Wigan goalkeeper Ali Al Habsi.
The ball went straight to Hernandez and from six yards he was not going to miss.
Van Persie scored to make it 2-0, then left the stage until his 63rd-minute free-kick deflected for Hernandez to volley in.
Two minutes from time, after probably one of his best goals, Van Persie got one of his easiest, guiding the ball home after Ronnie Stam and Emmerson Boyce had messed up, giving Danny Welbeck an easy opportunity to find Van Persie.
“Over the years, December has been a good month for us,” said Ferguson. “This time it has put us into a seven-point lead with 17 games left, but we don’t want to make mistakes like last year.”
WIGAN: Al Habsi, Ramis, Caldwell (Stam 69), Figueroa, Boyce, McCarthy, McArthur, Beausejour, Di Santo (Gomez 70), Maloney (McManaman 86), Kone. Subs Not Used: Pollitt, Jones, Boselli, Golobart.
Booked: Caldwell.
MAN UNITED: De Gea, Da Silva, Ferdinand (Smalling 68), Evans, Evra, Young (Welbeck 78), Carrick (Kagawa 68), Cleverley, Giggs, Van Persie, Hernandez. Subs Not Used: Lindegaard, Valencia, Vidic, Scholes.
Booked: Smalling.
Goals: Hernandez 35, 63, Van Persie 43, 88
Attendance: 20,342
Referee: Andre Marriner (W Midlands).
Watch Wigan Athletic vs Manchester United match video
[media id=776 width=610 height=340]Manchester City 3 Stoke City 0:Bad news for City Sergio Aguero injured
His man-management methods sometimes leave you scratching your head, but at least Aguero and Dzeko seem to have taken it in the right way.
They have weighed in with five goals in the last two games to ensure City stay on the coat-tails of United with nine points from the four holiday games.
But to lose Aguero when he seemed to have finally rediscovered last season’s sharpness is a blow.
Last night Aguero tweeted: “I have to take a 48-hour rest and have some studies done on the injury. I will keep you posted. It was great to start and end the year with a win. Too bad about the crick [injury] when we were wrapping up the game.”
Mancini said: “It’s a hamstring and it is difficult to assess an injury like that. Saturday he will be out. And he’ll be doubtful for Arsenal.
“There are different degrees of hamstring, that’s why you need the 48 hours. We’ll just have to see. It’s far too early to say.”
Hollywood actors David Hasselhoff and Timothy Dalton joined the players in the dressing room as they celebrated.
It was one-way traffic from the kick-off, with City making light work of a Stoke side who arrived on the back of a 10-game unbeaten run.
But they had to wait until two minutes before half-time before making the breakthrough.
Pablo Zabaleta scored after Asmir Begovic had stuck out a leg to divert James Milner’s cross into his path. The second goal after 56 minutes arrived in similar fashion, this time Begovic parrying Aguero’s shot to give Dzeko a simple tap-in.
Aguero, who had hit the post in the first half, deserved a goal and he got his reward in the 74th minute from the penalty spot, although Steven N’Zonzi’s challenge on David Silva looked to be outside the area.
But Stoke were already a well-beaten side, even though they rallied towards the end when Jonathan Walters missed a great chance to pull one back and Joe Hart tipped Glen Whelan’s drive on to the post.
City are praying it will be as happy as the old year.
Man City: Hart, Kompany, Zabaleta, Lescott, Clichy, Milner, Barry, Silva (Sinclair 82), Y Toure, Dzeko (Razak 90), Aguero (Tevez 77)
Subs not used: Pantilimon, K Toure, Nastasic, Garcia
Goals: Zabaleta 43, Dzeko 56, Aguero 74 (pen)
Booked: Lescott, Dzeko
Stoke City: Begovic, Cameron, Huth, Shawcross, Wilkinson, Whelan, Nzonzi, Adam (Whitehead 68), Jones (Etherington 50), Walters, Jerome
Subs not used: Sorensen, Upson, Shotton, Kightly, Crouch
Booked: Huth, Nzonzi
Referee: Michael Oliver
Attendance: 47,192
Watch Manchester City vs Stoke City match video
[media id=777 width=610 height=340]Swansea City 2 Aston Villa 2:Swans always playing good football and Villa stop to lost
Paul Lambert will have been glad to see in the New Year after three alarming defeats, but his festive woes continued as Danny Graham salvaged a point for Swansea with a last-gasp equaliser.
He said: “We have been beaten heavily in the last three games so it’s a huge point for the future. We should have seen the game through with just 30 seconds to go, but all these young lads have been excellent for me.
“When you get beaten heavily, you learn a lot from people. And they’ve shown me that, mentally, they are really strong. It’s always a building block and this is a long-term thing. But I just keep having the belief I have always had.
“The lads have taken so much criticism in the last three weeks, but here they deserve a lot of praise for what they have done. This was such a massive turnaround for all of us.”
Michael Laudrup’s Swansea will rue their failure not to have converted more of their golden first-half opportunities either side of Wayne Routledge’s ninth-minute opener.
Prior to his strike, Routledge was denied by excellent Villa goalkeeper Brad Guzan, while Michu struck the post twice after the hosts had secured their lead.
Swansea’s club-record signing Pablo Hernandez cut the visitors’ backline wide open, and Routledge rounded Guzan before slotting the ball into an empty net for his fifth goal of the season. But the home side were punished for their failure to convert chances, as Weimann levelled just a minute before the interval.
Benteke’s diagonal pass with the outside of his right boot found strike-partner Weimann, who peeled off the back of Williams. The Austrian striker gave goalkeeper Michel Vorm no chance with a low finish into the bottom corner to score Villa’s first goal in almost six hours of football. And even that came against the run of play.
The second period almost proved to be a tale of two penalty appeals.
Swans defender Angel Rangel surged down the right and Joe Bennett seemed to handle inside the area. Mark Halsey awarded only a free-kick on the edge of the box, though.
Then, with six minutes left, Villa were given a spot-kick of their own as Nathan Dyer fouled Weimann just seconds after clearing Benteke’s header off the line.
Benteke converted that spot-kick in style, but Graham had the final say when he smashed the ball home, at the second attempt, for his second strike in four days.
Lambert added: “Massive teams have come here and come away with nothing, so we didn’t have a divine right to turn up and think we were going to stamp all over them. Swansea came at us from all angles in the first half and we had to weather the storm and hope that we would get a break. Yes, we got a bit of luck but we played well in the second half.”
Laudrup said: “Our first-half performance was great, but we only scored once from seven chances. We gave Villa belief that they could get something.”
Swansea: Vorm, Rangel, Williams, Chico, Davies, Routledge (Dyer 66), Britton (Agustien 79), Michu, de Guzman (Ki 62), Hernandez, Graham.
Subs Not Used: Tremmel, Monk, Shechter, Tiendalli.
Goals: Routledge 9, Graham 90.
Aston Villa: Guzan, Lowton, Herd, Clark, Stevens (Holman 68), Albrighton (Bowery 85), Westwood (Bannan 81), Delph, Bennett, Weimann, Benteke.
Subs Not Used: Given, Ireland, Lichaj, Carruthers.
Booked: Clark, Delph, Weimann, Stevens.
Goals: Weimann 44, Benteke 84 pen.
Attendance: 20,406
Referee: Mark Halsey
Watch Swansea City vs Aston Villa Match Video
[media id=778 width=610 height=340]Barclays Premier League game week 21 other Results
West Bromwich Albion 1 – 2 Fulham
Tottenham Hotspur 3 – 1 Reading
West Ham United 2 – 1 Norwich City
Southampton 1 – 1 Arsenal
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