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Rooney's brace helps keep United on top

Manchester United's Cristiano Ronaldo, center top, and Aston Villa's Ashley Young, left, battle for the ball during their English Premier League match at Old Trafford in Salford, England, on Saturday. PHOTO: AP

Sir Alex Ferguson believes Wayne Rooney's double against Aston Villa could trigger a scoring run that will deliver Manchester United the Premier League title.

Rooney ended his six-game drought as United cruised to a comfortable 4-0 victory over UEFA Cup hopefuls Villa, with Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez adding the other two.

The win lifted United six points clear at the head of the table with six games remaining, although Chelsea could reduce that deficit to five if they win their game in hand.

Ferguson, though, is convinced his players have upped their level of performance at a crucial time and that having returned to the score-sheet, Rooney will now exert a major influence on United's bid to pull off a double of league and Champions League.

"It was great to see him get off the mark and Wayne's the kind of striker who can go on a run now," the United manager said. "He did that last season, scoring in six or seven games and he has scored at a very, very important time for us. I think the players hit a peak last week [against Liverpool] in terms of the level they need to reach and I think it continued today."

Ferguson's only concern were slight injuries to four of his players ahead of the visit to AS Roma in the Champions League quarter-final first leg tomorrow.

"There were a few injuries today," Ferguson said. "I took off Michael Carrick, Rio Ferdinand and Patrice Evra because they were injured and Ryan Giggs had to come off before the end which wasn't too good. But hopefully they will be alright."

Villa manager Martin O'Neill refused to concede his side's hopes of finishing sixth and qualifying for Europe despite Villa's failure to win for a fifth successive game.

"The other results have gone for us apart from Portsmouth winning and we are very capable of forcing our way back into it," the Villa manager said. "We were well beaten and United were terrific today."
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