Premiership: United back in championship race

Manchester United 6 Southampton 1

Manchester United’s title rivals will not enjoy their Christmas dinner quite as much after this.

Just two weeks after it seemed United were out of the championship race, they are very much back in contention after recording their third successive Premiership win and their biggest of the campaign.

Ruud van Nistelrooy was United’s goalscoring hero and the Dutchman scored his first hat-trick for the Red Devils to take his tally for the season to 16.

Ominously for the rest of the Premiership this drubbing means the champions have scored 12 goals in their last three games and conceded just one.

The win takes United to within three points of Liverpool, who were the championship favourites going into today’s games, after they had trailed the Merseysiders by 11 points a fortnight ago.

After hinting David Beckham would start, Sir Alex Ferguson named the England skipper among his substitutes.

Ferguson had also suggested Ryan Giggs would play from the beginning, but he, too, began on the bench.

Instead Ferguson stuck with the 10 outfield players who finished so strongly at Middlesbrough last Saturday.

United picked up where they had left off at the Riverside Stadium and they opened the scoring after just 30 seconds.

Paul Scholes played a beautiful crossfield ball from the left flank on the halfway line to van Nistelrooy on the right.

The Holland international striker controlled the ball before firing home right-footed past Paul Jones into the far corner to record the fastest goal this season.

Southampton, who had won three of their last four league games, could have equalised after Laurent Blanc went walkabout.

The Frenchman was caught out of position when Paul Williams’ long ball upfield put James Beattie clean through. Luckily for Blanc and United, Beattie shot over from the edge of the box when he should have done better.

That proved to be a mere blip for United and they were back to their fluent-passing best.

Southampton were chasing shadows at times, although the plucky Saints refused to lie down.

They threatened again briefly when Kevin Davies set up Jason Dodd just outside the box and the Saints skipper shot over.

United regained control and Claus Lundekvam was just inches away from turning the ball into his own net when he knocked Roy Keane’s dangerous cross behind for a corner.

United continued to press for a second goal and Scholes fired just wide before van Nistelrooy saw a shot deflected wide after he had controlled Juan Sebastian Veron’s ball and turned nicely in the area.

The second eventually came on 33 minutes and was a real poacher’s effort from van Nistelrooy.

Nicky Butt’s volley from a corner rebounded off Williams and Keane headed the loose ball towards van Nistelrooy, who turned and prodded it home from inside the six-yard box.

Four minutes before the interval United scored again when Ole Gunnar Solskjaer knocked Butt’s corner home with his knee.

The fourth goal came on 53 minutes when van Nistelrooy latched on to Scholes’ through ball to complete his hat-trick and take his tally in his last four games to seven.

United were still celebrating when Southampton pulled one back a minute later after a defensive mix-up by United.

Veron failed to keep Barthez’s clearance in play and Paul Telfer crossed into the middle for Marian Pahars to score.

Barthez stopped Southampton’s revival gathering further momentum when he made a brilliant save to keep out Beattie’s shot.

Southampton were playing their best football when it was far too late to affect the scoreline and Beattie danced through the United defence before shooting over.

On 65 minutes United brought on Giggs and Beckham to a huge ovation from the Old Trafford faithful to turn the screw even more on Southampton.

Giggs made an impact within seven minutes of coming on when he slid the ball through to Keane and the United skipper slotted home goal number five.

United were not finished yet and on 78 minutes Phil Neville scored a fine solo goal when he cut across field before letting fly with his left foot.

‘We’re going to win the Premier League again’ sang the delirious United fans and on this showing they might just.