Five-star United in cruise control

Manchester United 5, Stoke City 0

IT WAS an afternoon of milestones as Manchester United recorded a season’s best victory against Stoke City at Old Trafford.

Sir Alex Ferguson celebrated 50 years in professional football on a day when Cristiano Ronaldo scored twice to complete a century of goals for the club while there was a first one for 17-year-old Danny Welbeck on his Premier League debut.

Michael Carrick and Dimitar Berbatov also found the net and, with better finishing, the Reds would have won by an even more emphatic margin such was their domination.

After the pre-match hype, in which Ferguson likened the contrasting styles of the two teams as ‘Beauty and the Beast,’ it proved far from the physical examination many had been forecasting.

Stoke, whose robust and uncompromising approach had previously unsettled top-four teams Liverpool and Arsenal, never troubled the Reds, even though they have yet to reproduce the level of performance from last season’s double-winning campaign.

That was reinforced by Ferguson who explained: “While it was a fantastic scoreline, I didn’t think we played that well in the first half.

“I don’t know if we scored too early, but the speed of our game was not as good as it normally is.

“But the second goal we scored on the stroke of half time killed Stoke and our second-half performance was marvellous. We played some great football, scored some great goals and Daniel Welbeck will remember scoring on his Premier League debut in front of the Stretford end for the rest of his life.”

This victory was achieved without injured Wayne Rooney, Rio Ferdinand and Ryan Giggs. And at the end the team resembled a Carling Cup line-up as it featured the likes of Welbeck, Darron Gibson and Jonny Evans.

It took less than three minutes for United to make a breakthrough when Ronaldo thundered home a free kick from 30 yards.

But the second goal did not arrive until stoppage time when Ronaldo provide the assist for Carrick to score with a cracking strike.

The second period was barely three minutes old when Berbatov scored United’s third goal. The Bulgarian tried a cheeky flick which struck him on the thigh before dropping invitingly for him to covert.

Welbeck and Gibson were introduced shortly after the hour mark with the game already won, while Angolan international Manucho was handed his first Premier League appearance for the final 16 minutes.

The changes did not knock United out of their stride as they added two further goals in the dying minutes.

Welbeck produced the pick - and a contender for the goal-of-the-month award. He picked up the ball in the centre circle, played a return pass with Manuchu, strode forward and from 30 yards struck a peach of a shot into the top corner.

“It was every boy’s dream to score that goal, especially being from Manchester and in front of the Stretford end,” Welbeck explained.

And there was still time for Ronaldo to strike his second goal of the game, again from a free kick. This time he bent it low round the defensive wall and out of the despairing reach of keeper Thomas Sorensen.

Ronaldo has now scored nine goals in only 12 starts this season after an injury-interupted start to the campaign.

His total of 101 goals for the Reds has been completed in 253 appearances over six seasons – and he is still only 23 years old.