United run riot

'United weren't that good against Wigan. Wayne Rooney was. Without Rooney United are nothing. One man team.' Agree? Join the debate below with our reader comments.

Sir Alex Ferguson hailed his side's 4-0 Premiership victory over Wigan as the perfect end to a bad week for Manchester United.

Seven days ago, the Red Devils saw their European campaign bite the dust in Lisbon, followed quickly by a home draw with Everton which left their title chances hanging in the balance.

Ferguson's outburst at his media critics prior to the encounter with the Latics only fuelled the sense of crisis around Old Trafford.

But United responded to Ferguson's call to arms in the best manner possible, romping to their biggest win of the season to reduce Chelsea's lead to nine points and turn the Scot into an Arsenal fan when the two London giants meet at Highbury on Sunday.

"It has been a bad week for Manchester United," said Ferguson.

"The way to get over situations like these is to grit your teeth, stay together, persevere and stick to your principles.

"In the context of the last seven days, this victory could not have come at a better time.

"Now, we have another job to do at Aston Villa on Saturday lunchtime but we will all be hoping for an Arsenal win on Sunday."

After the first half-hour, Ferguson feared he would be bemoaning his decision to let Mike Pollitt leave during the early days of his managerial reign.

The Wigan goalkeeper, a former United apprentice, made four stupendous stops to keep the hosts at bay but was eventually beaten by Rio Ferdinand, who netted for the first time in 140 Red Devils appearances, when he glided home a header from Ryan Giggs' corner.

'Ruud is the club penalty taker. He has a great record and he should take them'

Two superb Wayne Rooney strikes either side of the interval settled any remaining home nerves, although the young England striker was denied a hat-trick when Ruud van Nistelrooy opted to take the penalty himself after Pollitt had brought the Dutchman down 20 minutes from time.

"I have no problem with that," said Ferguson of Van Nistelrooy's uncharitable decision.

"It is not that I am against allowing someone to take a penalty to complete a hat-trick but Wayne will score plenty of them without having to do things like that.

"Ruud is the club penalty taker. He has a great record and he should take them."

Ferguson acknowledged his side lost their way in the latter stages once he had taken off Ferdinand, Giggs and Paul Scholes, who are all likely to be key figures over the packed Christmas campaign.

"A few years ago we could have made those substitutions in a blink of an eye," said Ferguson.

"But it is a measure of how far standards have been raised in the Premiership that the game changed after we made the substitutions."

While United now find themselves in second spot and Ferguson has at least three days to breathe easy before the weekend trip to Villa Park, Latics boss Paul Jewell must now raise the spirits of a side which has lost five games on the trot.

In fairness, those defeats have come against Tottenham, Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea and now United. Hardly the easiest run of fixtures.

"You couldn't have a harder run than that in any league in the world," he said.

"It would be easy to lambast the team after losing again but this is not a time to be critical.

"We have to learn from these situations. It is my job to lift the confidence. We have Charlton on Saturday and, while they are a good side, they are not the same standard as the clubs we have just faced."

'United weren't that good against Wigan. Wayne Rooney was. Without Rooney United are nothing. One man team.' Agree? Join the debate below with our reader comments.