United put four past Hammers

12 April 2012

Paul Scholes and Darron Gibson both thundered goals from outside the area as Manchester United's 4-0 demolition of West Ham kept up the pressure on Chelsea at the top of the Barclays Premier League.

Scholes struck just before half-time and Gibson on 61 minutes to put United in complete command.

And Antonio Valencia and Wayne Rooney supplied tap-ins as Sir Alex Ferguson's side cruised to an easy win.

The visitors to Upton Park were without injured defenders Rio Ferdinand, Nemanja Vidic and Jonny Evans, so midfielder Darren Fletcher filled in at right-back with Gary Neville and Wes Brown in the middle. Neville and Brown had to be substituted, adding to United's fitness concerns.

But if Scholes caught the eye with that screamer which goalkeeper Robert Green got his hand to but could only divert into the net, then United owed this victory as much to Ryan Giggs.

At 36, Giggs is a contender for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award, and it seems as he nears the end of his career his performances are as good than ever.

His surge at the heart of the West Ham defence on the hour mark was a perfect example, skipping past defenders and releasing his pass perfectly into the stride of Gibson who powered a brilliant strike past Green.

Tomasz Kuszczak had to make a superb save a few minutes later when Alessandro Diamanti curled a free-kick which appeared bound for the top corner, but after that it was all United.

A bright run from Anderson produced a cross which gave Valencia an easy tap-in after 71 minutes.

And more good work from Scholes a minute later sent Valencia away and his cross was steered home by Rooney for the fourth.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in