Red Devils terrorise Fulham

Hargreaves: Opened the scoring

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Manchester United cruised to a 3-0 victory at Craven Cottage as they piled more misery on hapless Fulham.

Owen Hargreaves, Ji-Sung Park and an own goal from Simon Davies gave the Red Devils the win as they closed to within a point of Arsenal at the top of the Premier League.

United looked comfortable throughout the first-half, but could have gone behind inside 10 minutes if it were not for a great fingertip save from Edwin van der Sar to deny Danny Murphy.

As it was, on 15 minutes Sir Alex Ferguson's side took the lead through Hargreaves' first goal for the club.

The England international took responsibility of a free-kick on the edge of the box and curled a sublime effort past a stranded Antti Niemi.

The Cottagers continued to struggle to breakthrough a resolute United backline and it came as no surprise when the visitors doubled their lead just before the break.

Paul Scholes provided the overlap down the right and his chipped delivery was headed in off the underside of the bar by Park.

The reigning champions looked as though they knew the job was already done as the second-half got underway and seemed unwilling to throw too many men forward.

However, they still proved to be too sharp for Fulham and grabbed a third on 72 minutes courtesy of an own goal from Davies.

John O'Shea made a rare foray into the opposition half and his cross was turned past a wrong-footed Niemi by the Welsh winger.

An uncharacteristic flap by van der Sar in the closing seconds almost gave Davies the opportunity to make amends for his earlier error, but United stood firm and recorded their sixth victory in their last eight league outings.

Dominated

As expected, United dominated the early possession, stringing passes together and having the first shot inside three minutes when Louis Saha chested on Park's right-wing cross for Nani to drill into the chest of Niemi.

Two minutes later Saha, facing his old club in his first start for two months, was galloping through the middle again onto a long free-kick from Paul Scholes but unaccountably skewered his shot wide from 14 yards.

Niemi soon had to get down to a low drive by Carlos Tevez, with Paul Konchesky scooping away the loose ball.

Then, from nowhere, new American striker Eddie Johnson, in his orange boots, battled down the right to send in a half-cleared cross for Fulham and Danny Murphy powered in a shot from 25 yards which van der Sar, another former Fulham favourite, had to juggle around his right-hand post.

It was a clear warning to United that complacency might not be their only enemy.

But normality returned as Scholes had a goalbound shot blocked by Aaron Hughes as United poured forward again in the 14th minute.

Dubious

And when seconds later Tevez won a dubious free-kick inches outside the area after falling over a challenge by Brede Hangeland, it was Hargreaves who stepped up to place it perfectly over the wall and wide of Niemi's reach.

Niemi's flying saves kept out Scholes' shot which appeared to be creeping inside a post and after Murphy tested van der Sar again with a half-volley following Jimmy Bullard's free-kick for a foul by Wes Brown, it was Scholes again who chested Patrice Evra's cross past a post.

But Fulham could not keep the red tide at bay forever and they opened up again in first-half stoppage time when Park was granted the freedom of the penalty area to head in a Scholes cross after a neat link-up between Tevez and Nani.

Fulham deserved great credit for their pluck and they had a good share of possession as United began to ease off but it seemed the height of cruelty to send on both Ronaldo and Rooney late on.

Even so it was a Fulham player who scored United's third. Davies, just back from a one-match ban, stuck out a boot running towards his own goal and jabbed O'Shea's cross between the legs of Niemi.