Man Utd 3 West Ham 0
Manchester United extended their winning streak to seven matches with a hugely-dominant victory over West Ham at Old Trafford today.
Goals by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Juan Sebastian Veron, the Argentinian with a wonderful direct free-kick, had set Sir Alex Ferguson's men on their way before Sebastian Schemmel's own goal deepened the despair for the Premiership's bottom side.
United are now level on points with Arsenal, at least until the Gunners play their game at Tottenham tomorrow, and on the evidence of this display are back to their very best. West Ham, a couple of players excepted, looked terrified from the first whistle and offered little opposition.
Unsurprisingly, Ferguson kept an unchanged line-up with David Beckham once again starting on the bench. Rio Ferdinand was still injured but there was a Ferdinand on the team-sheet - his younger brother Anton being picked as a West Ham substitute for the first time.
West Ham may have arrived as the bottom club in the Premiership but they were the last side to prevent a United victory, with a 1-1 draw at Upton Park in November.
Michael Carrick broke up some promising United moves in the early stages as West Ham struggled to cope with Ferguson's 4-2-3-1 formation.
David James' alertness prevented a goal when John O'Shea's flicked header from Veron's corner arrowed towards the near post, but the respite was only temporary as United poured forward again.
Gary Neville had plenty of time to deliver a tempting cross and though Solskjaer's header was not top-notch the ball took enough of a deflection off defender Tomas Repka's arm to deceive James.
Two minutes later Veron made it 2-0. From a free-kick 30 yards out on the right, Beckham's usual territory, the Argentinian bent a curling shot inside the far-post with James perhaps having expected the left-footed Ryan Giggs to have taken it instead.
'We're going to win 3-2' sung the West Ham fans, but even they sounded unconvinced as Glenn Roeder's men struggled to even get out of their half.
Finally the Hammers put together a decent attack - more than half-an-hour into the game - but Trevor Sinclair's acrobatic overhead volley did not test Fabien Barthez.
Ruud van Nistelrooy had been a constant lurking presence and when he spun in the box to confront James it looked odds-on to be 3-0 but the goalkeeper did well to spread himself and block the shot.
West Ham started the second period the brighter and Joe Cole, who had had a quiet first half, wriggled free down the left and delivered a penetrating cross that United were grateful to see flicked away by O'Shea.
On the hour mark a patient build-up by United ending in Schemmel scoring an own goal to end what was left of the contest.
Scholes picked up possession, surged forward and flicked the ball out to Gary Neville who fired a driven cross low across goal. Perhaps conscious of Giggs waiting to pounce behind him Schemmel tried to clear but could only steer it into his own net.
Diego Forlan came on as substitute and with his first touch set up van Nistelrooy but the striker put the chance wide.
Barthez then made the save of the match - from his own player. Wes Brown powered a header from Minto's cross towards his own goal and Barthez had to fling himself to push the ball aside.
PA