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Man United outplay Villa, extend lead on top of EPL
Published on Sun, Mar 30, 2008 at 19:24, Updated at Sun, Mar 30, 2008 in Sports section
Tags: Soccer, English Premier League , London
ONE UP: Manchester United's Cristiano Ronaldo celebrates after scoring his teams first goal against Aston Villa.
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Manchester United moved three points clear at the top of the EPL.
London: Wayne Rooney scored twice and Manchester United outplayed Aston Villa 4-0 on Saturday to move six points clear in the English Premier League title race, while Arsenal rallied from two goals and a man down to win 3-2 at Bolton.
Cristiano Ronaldo scored his 35th goal of the season in all competitions to put the Red Devils on the road to an easy victory at Old Trafford and Carlos Tevez added a second in the 33rd minute.
Rooney's brace in the 53rd and 70th minutes means that Alex Ferguson's team has a huge goal differential of 53, having scored 68 and conceded only 15.
"The players reached a peak last week and we continued that today," Ferguson said in reference to last weekend's 3-0 victory over Liverpool.
"They realise now it's a race to the line, we need consistency and real focus and we showed fantastic energy ... The title doesn't feel that close for us, but there is great confidence in the way the team is playing and that's always great at this time of the year."
After Matt Taylor had scored twice for relegation-threatened Bolton at Reebok Stadium and Abou Diaby had been shown a 31st-minute red card for a foul on Gretar Steinsson, the Gunners looked likely to fall further behind leader Manchester United, who now have 76 points from 32 games with six more rounds to play.
But William Gallas replied in the 62nd minute, Robin van Persie equalised with a 68th-minute penalty after Gary Cahill had brought down Alexander Hleb, and an own-goal by defender JLloyd Samuel in the final minute gave Arsenal the three points.
With 70 points from 32 games, the Gunners regain second spot from Chelsea, who have 68 from 31 and host Middlesbrough on Sunday.
"We didn't give up. It was a mental test - 2-0 down and 10 against 11 with half an hour to go," Wenger said.
"We knew that 2-2 wasn't good enough, we wanted it to be a win to stay in the race. Only three points was good enough."
Sunday's other games are Liverpool-Everton and Tottenham-Newcastle.
Last-place Derby County were guaranteed relegation after a 2-2 draw at home to next-to-last Fulham.
In Saturday's other matches, Birmingham beat Manchester City 3-1, Portsmouth downed Wigan 2-0, Reading and Blackburn drew 0-0 and Sunderland edged West Ham 2-1.
Arsenal have lost their last three visits at the Reebok Stadium and went into the game on a Premier League run of four draws and last weekend's 2-1 loss to Chelsea.
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