On Saturday, Manchester United faced managerless Newcastle at Old Trafford. Before the match, I had a feeling that United were playing against the Magpies at just the right time. This is exactly what happened as United notched up an incredible 6 goals a woeful Newcastle defence.

Sir Alex fielded his best available eleven players. Rooney and Tevez started upfront, Giggs and Ronaldo took their positions at either wing and Carrick partnered Anderson in midfield. in defence, O'Shea replaced the suspended Wes Brown.

The Manchester United players took a while to get going which resulted in a goalless first-half. Despite dominating possession, they failed to create many clear-cut chances, making the Newcastle defence look unusually good. United had two good penalty shouts, but I can't blame Rob Styles for not giving them. It was Newcastle who were most hard-done by, as Owen's strike was ruled out due a wrong offside flag.

And Newcastle were made to rue the mistake by the assisstant referee as United turned on the style in the second-half. The Magpies defence was ripped apart countless times, and they had no answer to Man utd's passing and movement. Ronaldo scored from the free-kick to open up the flood-gates.Soon after this,calamitous defending by Jose Enrique and Shay Given allowed Tevez to score an easy goal.A simply sublime foer-man move led to united's third,with Ronaldo showing excellent skill and composure to control Tevez's pass and bury it into the net.Ferdinand volleyed in the fourth,scoring a goal any striker in the world would be proud of.Even after this,United kept up the pressure and Ronaldo got his first-ever hat-trick for the red devils as a deflection carried his shot past Given. Tevez rounded the scoring,when the linesman correctly judged that his shot crossed the line.Alan Smith did not agree,and the ref gave him a straight red when he foolishly confronted the referee.

Man Utd scored six when they could easily have scored beyond ten.Newcastle cleared the ball off the line four times and I lost count of united'ds total Goal scoring oppurtunities. Towards the end of the match,it was like men against boys,professionals against amateurs and a Premiership club against a pub team. Such one-sided matches are rare,and you really enjoy if the dominating team is the team you support.

Needless to say,Ronaldo was absolutely brilliant in the match,taking his tally of goals to 22 for the season.Also,it is good to see that Tevez's finishing is up to the mark.It is interesting to note that Roonry failed to score,but I think he will go on a scoring run soon enough.All in all,it was an awesome,breath-taking display of beautiful football by man utd.(That which othe football owners and managers crave for,most notably, Roman Abramovich).

As far as Newcastle is concerned,they need to appoint a manager as soon as possible and bring in a few players in the transfer window. If they don't improve their game, I think they have an outside chance of being relegated.

To cap off a wonderful weekend for United, Arsenal vould only manage a draw against Birmingham. (I think that the Gunners took Birmingham lightly, and missed their defensive stalwart Toure, who has gone for AFCON). After this performance, United should be able to hold on the first spot for some time, if not until the end of the season.

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