Man United 1-0 Birmingham

The destinies of Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo have been bound together once before in a World Cup season, with a certain dismissal and a wink as England's hopes of glory were extinguished three years ago. That was the endgame played out in Germany but as a new season unfolds we have evidence already that the world's most expensive player may have laid the groundwork for a tournament to remember for England's most potent striker. Freed from the yoke of the left wing by Ronaldo's departure, Rooney has finally been allocated that small area of turf in the penalty area which he has so coveted and his natural instinct for finding space there is proving as valuable for Sir Alex Ferguson as he always told him it would be.

Alex McLeish, the vanquished Birmingham manager put it best last night when he placed Rooney in the same bracket as Zinedine Zidane and Michel Platini. "We've seen them over the years, players who drop into all the little pockets and are hard to pin down," McLeish said. "If he faces up you have to watch out, he has a vicious shot on him." Last season, it took Rooney until October to score twice but yesterday's instinctive strike, the striker pouncing on the rebound having leapt acrobatically to head Nani's fine 34th-minute cross on to a post, takes him there already, if you count his Community Shield goal too.

Rooney has that tendency to score in spurts but he is looking like a 30-goals-a-season man already. "A very significant total this season," is what Sir Alex Ferguson said he expected, last night. "He is capable of [30], we've seen that. It's not impossible."

While Rooney stands a goal short of 100 for United, Michael Owen would give the earth for just one. The anticipation he showed to react to Rooney's cushioned chest pass and race through on goal in second-half injury time shows that he has an understanding with Rooney which Berbatov despite his markedly better workrate does not. Time stood still at Old Trafford as Owen advanced but the ensuing miss Owen snatching nervily where in days past he would have skipped past Joe Hart was agonising. "He will get his goal and it will set him on the road," his manager said.

Hart's alertness was a contributory factor though and part of an absorbing subplot involving him and Ben Foster, contenders for the England goalkeeping jersey next summer. "I know it's his ambition to play in the World Cup, and what better incentive?" McLeish said of the 22-year-old who is keeping the established Maik Taylor out.

Foster knows from his experiences in the relegated Watford side of three years ago that Hart's year-long loan from Manchester City will provide a chance to catch the eye. Each matched the other, save for save; Hart leaping to palm over a 12-yard chip from Rooney in the first quarter of an hour and to parry wide a 45-yard shot the striker let go in the first minute of the second half. Rooney's industry was endless. Foster responded with something marginally finer – palming wide after Wes Brown had allowed Christian Benitez to spring United's offside trap. "Benitez denies United": the headline writers were denied an opportunity too. It was a save which atoned for Foster's shaky Community Shield performance. "I think he has learned from last week, which was an unusually nervy performance from him," Ferguson said.

United's 10 clean sheets delivered them the title last season and Ferguson, who said he would "take eight 1-0s," was right to take some pleasure because James McFadden and Cameron Jerome were threatening and it took a gravity defying headed goalline clearance from Patrice Evra to keep out Franck Queudrue's header. There are more defensive challenges ahead. Rio Ferdinand will be missing for at least two weeks after sustaining a thigh injury in training on Friday and Jonny Evans, who has had ankle and groin trouble, was withdrawn injured though Ferguson hopes Nemanja Vidic will be fit for Wigan on Saturday.

Nani's removal at half-time is another concern as the 22-year-old is United's new tale of the unexpected. And eclipsing all but Rooney was Darren Fletcher, at 25, two years older than the matchwinner but starting to set the world on fire in United's midfield nearly a decade after joining as a trainee. The new banners for the Old Trafford entrance, replacing those which depicted a grinning Ryan Giggs and others clutching the European Cup, extol the virtues of the Manchester United Soccer Schools. "Learn to play the United Way," they state. A prescient message considering what the Ferguson youth are providing. Did someone say Ronaldo was missing?

Manchester United (4-4-2): Foster; F Da Silva, O'Shea, Evans (Brown, 75), Evra; Valencia, Fletcher, Scholes, Nani (Giggs, h-t); Rooney, Berbatov (Owen, 75). Substitutes not used: Anderson, Gibson, Kuszczak (gk), De Laet.

Birmingham City (4-1-4-1): Hart; Carr, R Johnson, Queudrue, Vignal; Carsley (Benitez, 75); Larsson (O'Shea, 82), Ferguson, Fahey, McFadden; Jerome (O'Connor, 65). Substitutes not used: Maik Taylor (gk), O'Connor, Phillips, McSheffrey, Parnaby.

Referee: L Mason (Lancashire).
Booked: Birmingham City Vignal; Manchester Utd Fletcher.
Man of the match: Rooney.
Attendance: 75,062

Wigan 1-2 Manchester United

Rodallega opened the scoring for Wigan

After Carlos Tevez had proved a point, two more followed for Manchester United here thanks to a super goal from Michael Carrick.

But it was Tevez who came to United’s rescue. Tevez who stepped off the bench to score a hugely important equaliser that was just brilliant in its execution.

Only three minutes after joining what was proving a difficult contest for the defending champions, Tevez revitalised a stuttering United with the deftest of backheels.

Flying high: Wayne Rooney tumbles off Michael Carrick as United's jubilant players celebrate the winner

A flick straight from the Cristiano Ronaldo repertoire but scored on this occasion by a striker hoping to secure an Old Trafford future.

This time he resisted the temptation to run to his tormentors and cup his ears in petulant protest. This time he simply let the brilliance of his football do the talking and chose, instead, to run to those who adore him: the supporters who responded to the sight of his 61st minute goal by again beseeching Sir Alex Ferguson to ‘sign him up’.

When he makes the kind of impact he did here at a pulsating JJB Stadium and performs every bit as impressively as he did in Sunday’s Manchester derby, it is hard to find a reason not to.
Michael Carrick

If Tevez really has been feeling unwanted and isolated, Ferguson should do something about that.

Thanks to the Argentine, and indeed Carrick, United now need only a draw against Arsenal on Saturday to secure a third successive Premier League title.

They are only a draw away from having things sewn up 11 days before they attempt to make Champions League history by successfully defending the trophy they won so memorably in Moscow last May.

Until Ferguson released Tevez from the bench in the 58th minute, it had proved an anxious night for United thanks to a 28th-minute goal from Wigan’s Hugo Rodallega.

It was looking like a tale of the unexpected. The bookies offered odds of 11-1 for a Wigan win, nobody expecting Steve Bruce’s side to re-ignite a title race which appeared all but over after Sunday’s defeat of Manchester City.

Suddenly, not even a win over Arsenal was going to be enough. Suddenly it seemed the title race would go to the last day of a season that would see United have to visit
a Hull side fighting for their Premier League lives and Liverpool entertain Tottenham.

If Arsenal could take yet more points off United at Old Trafford this Saturday, it really would get interesting.

For Liverpool, however, this has become all too familiar territory this season. They have sat at home and seen United flirt dangerously with defeat only to somehow escape with all three points.

They did as much against Aston Villa and Tottenham and they did it again here on a wet and cold Wigan night.

It is why United are the champions of England, Europe and the world.

Why they might now start to dominate Europe in the way they already dominate England.

Why players like Tevez and Cristiano Ronaldo would be mad to leave.

Even when they were struggling here, they still played some delightful football. The finishing may have lacked its usual potency but they created their chances with such fluency and finesse. On a perfectly manicured surface the passing was terrific.
Sir Alex Ferguson

Sir Alex Ferguson couldn't hide his delight after Manchester United's crucial win at Wigan

It was all the more impressive because Wigan were themselves performing well. For a side beaten 3-1 by West Bromwich Albion last week, Bruce’s side started remarkably well.

Antonio Valencia would have scored in the opening moments had his finish been as impressive as the burst of acceleration that left him with only Edwin van der Sar to beat -his chipped effort floated hopelessly wide - and Michael Brown also threatened.

But Wayne Rooney and Carrick squandered the best of the early chances, each missing when it seemed certain they would score.

First came Rooney, who met a super cross from Dimitar Berbatov with a header that somehow flew yards off target; and then Carrick, who somehow sent his close-range effort over the crossbar after a quite brilliant sequence of passing from Rooney, Paul Scholes, Carrick and Ronaldo.

Wigan’s goal did not come against the run of play, though, Nemanja Vidic’s failure to win an aerial battle with Rodallega for a ball launched forward by Lee Cattermole ultimately proving United’s undoing.

Rodallega won the initial header and before Vidic could work out where the ball had landed, the Colombia striker had driven a shot between Van der Sar and his right-hand post.

Even after the break, after what would have been a fierce reception from Ferguson for his United players, Wigan more than held their own.

But the arrival of Tevez for Anderson changed everything, the presence of a fourth forward seriously unsettling Wigan’s previously excellent back four.

Bruce said: ‘I’ve waited 10 years to get something against United and I thought this was going to be my night. I’m disappointed for my players as they deserved something, but we couldn’t keep our energy levels up and you need to do that against United.’

It was Carrick who created the champions’ opening goal, driving the ball into the Wigan penalty area at real pace, but Tevez who proved the creative genius, his touch completely wrong-footing the excellent Richard Kingson.

The goal gave United belief and removed any panic and with calm heads a second goal finally came, albeit four minutes from time.

The move started with Ronaldo on the right and continued with John O’Shea before Carrick drilled his shot into the roof of the Wigan net.

Another marvellous comeback from a truly marvellous team.