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15 January 2007, by Sean Gillen

Ronaldo on the mark again as United cruise past Villa

Manchester United 3-1 Aston Villa

Manchester United maintained their six-point lead at the top of the Premiership with a comfortable win over Aston Villa at Old Trafford. Cristiano Ronaldo scored his 13th goal of the season to add to earlier strikes from Ji-Sung Park and Michael Carrick as the Red Devils outclassed a sorry Villa side.

Ronaldo was presented with his latest Premiership Player of the Month Award before the game, and was joined in the United starting line-up by the returning Paul Scholes and Nemanja Vidic, while Henrik Larsson was selected ahead of Louis Saha.

The home side were in control from the outset, and Larsson came close to opening the scoring on four minutes when his header from a Gary Neville cross was brilliantly saved by Thomas Sorenson.

It did not take long for United to go ahead, however, and Ji-Sung Park opened his account for the season on ten minutes after some awful Villa defending. Park’s shot from ten yards was charged down by the Villa defenders, but Gary Cahill’s terrible clearance landed at the feet of the Korean, who drilled a low shot into the bottom corner.

The lead was doubled just ninety seconds later, with Carrick scoring his first goal for the club. The summer signing from Tottenham laid the ball out wide to Park, who returned possession to Carrick inside the area, and the England midfielder chipped the ball up and dispatched his shot past Sorenson.

Ronaldo skills

United were overwhelming the visitors all over the pitch, with the passing of Carrick and the magnificent Paul Scholes creating waves of attacking moves and Ronaldo providing numerous moments of brilliant individual skill. Gabriel Agbonlahor registered a rare effort on goal for the visitors on 25 minutes, but his drive from a tight angle was easy for van Der Sar.

If there was any doubt about the destination of the three points, Ronaldo settled the match on 35 minutes after more poor play from Villa. Carrick was again involved, picking up possession after McCann had given it away, and his perfect cross to the far post was met by Ronaldo, who headed across Sorenson and into the bottom corner.

Ronaldo almost created a long overdue goal for Wayne Rooney one minute before the end of the half. The Portuguese winger’s powerful run into the Villa half resulted in a slide ball to find Rooney, who made room for the shot from ten metres, but dragged his finish badly wide.

Although United always provided the stronger goal threat, Villa began to create chances towards the end of the first half, and pulled a goal back early in the second period when Milan Baros outpaced Vidic to fired the ball across for Agbonlahor to tap in from close range.

The game slowed down during the second half, with Villa rarely looking likely to stage a comeback. Scholes’ chipped throughball put Rooney one on one with Sorenson, but the Dane managed to block the striker’s finish.

Substitute Louis Saha then saw his effort blocked on the line by Cahill, and Sorenson denied Larsson with a low stop before Rooney was unlucky to see his 20-metre effort come back off the top of the crossbar.

United ultimately strolled to the victory, and are in good form going into what could prove a decisive weekend in the title race. After Chelsea play Liverpool at Anfield on Saturday, United travel to London to meet Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

Cristiano Ronaldo:

“It’s an important win. We started very well and we scored two goals in thirteen minutes, which was brilliant. When you are winning 3-0 the game is a bit easier, so that is why the performance went down a bit. But we played very well.”

“We’re in great form. It’s not only me scoring goals, my team-mates are also having opportunities to score. Michael Carrick scored a fantastic goal, Ji as well, and this is good for the team.”

“I felt very honoured by the award. It’s given me the motivation to achieve more.”

Carlos Queiroz (Manchester United assistant manager):

“The way we performed in the first half was special. If we can always do that we will be a real candidate for the title.”

“We learned from last week when we gave Villa time and space to play, and they began to believe they could get something from the game. So it was important to start with pace, good passing, movement and penetration and we scored naturally.”

Man Utd:
Van der Sar, Neville, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra, Ronaldo, Carrick (O'Shea 80), Scholes, Park (Saha 65), Rooney, Larsson (Solskjaer 80)
Yellow Cards: Rooney (76)

Aston Villa:
Sorensen, Mellberg, Ridgewell, Cahill, Bouma (Samuel 46), Hughes (Davis 46), McCann, Osbourne, Barry, Agbonlahor, Baros
Yellow Cards: Barry (25)

Goals:
[1-0] Park, 11
[2-0] Carrick, 13
[3-0] Ronaldo, 35
[3-1] Agbonlahor, 52