BPL Match No. 3

Not bad! After that unexpected defeat at hands of Burnley, Manchester United resumed its normal service with a 5-0 demolition of Wigan Athletics at the DW Stadium.

The match did not start well. Perhaps haunted by that defeat at the hands of the Premiership new boys, the first half was nervy. Passes went astray. Chances went unconverted. The players must have gotten the hairdryer treatment during the interval; they came out in the second-half with their guns blazing. Then came a period of three minutes which settled it for United. On the 56th minute, Wigan's old boy, Valencia, crossed the ball which Rooney met and headed into the goal. It was a monumentous goal for him; it was his 100th goal for United. One-nil up and United was lucky not to concede a goal almost immediately. An on-the-line quick thinking by Foster kept the ball out; had he not released the ball, it would have ended up in the net in his hands. Not too long later, Berbatov, who got a lot of stick for not performing as well as the fans would have wanted him to, scored brilliantly. Rooney then bagged his second goal of the game, via a Wigan defender's shin. The fourth goal came in from Owen who scored his first competitive goal for United. It must have been a huge relief for him, after his misses in the Burnley game. Getting that first goal for United lifted off a big burden off his shoulders, something that many strikers new to a club always dread. The final goal came from Nani's free kick. Having unfairly compared to the now-departed Ronaldo, it looked as though he was compelled to take over United former no.7's place in the squad.

That victory took United to third in the table, the rest of the top five teams were still on their second game.

Manchester United's next game will be a huge home game against the in-form Arsenal on Saturday, 29 August, at 12.30am Brunei time.