Man United Back on Top of English Premier League - 03-15-10

March 15 - Despite Manchester United's financial woes, the team has never looked stronger as it reclaimed the top spot in the English Premier League this season after a sterling 3-0 victory over Fulham at Old Trafford in Manchester on Sunday, which saw the team's striker Wayne Rooney put two away.

The victory put the Red Devils two points clear of Chelsea and Arsenal, who are lying in joint second place with 64 points each. After yesterday's match, Man United's respected manager Sir Alex Ferguson was full of praise for Rooney. 'I said a while ago it's impossible for a player to get 42, but he is on 32.'

The Scotsman was referring to the fact that Rooney may be in with a shot to surpass ex-Manchester United player Cristiano Ronaldo, who holds the current record of 42 goals scored in a single English Premier League season. 'He is capable of scoring in the next eight league games and five possible European games.'

So Manchester United the team to beat, where does that leave Chelsea and Arsenal? Answer, hot on the heels of the Red Devils, especially after this weekend's results. On Saturday Chelsea thumped West Ham United 4-1, with the majority of the credit going to outstanding Chelsea winger, Florent Malouda.

During his time on the pitch, Malouda pulled out all the stops, which saw him fend off West Ham defender Jonathan Spector time and again, and become The Blues' playmaker. The Frenchman set up Alex to head home the opener, crossed for Didier Drogba to score the second, before scoring a third for himself.

Full of praise for the 29-year-old after the match was Chelsea manager, Carlo Ancelotti, 'He was the best player on the pitch today. He scored a fantastic goal, did a fantastic assist for the first goal and the second goal for Didier. We scored four goals and it was an important performance for us to improve our confidence.'

Arsenal too racked up a victory on Saturday by defeating Hull City 2-1. And while many Arsenal fans expected the score line to be greater for the top-rated London team, the winning goal in the 93rd minute by striker Nicklas Bendtner has given them renewed hope that Arsenal may end up winning the League.

Here are the complete results from this weekend's English Premier League matches:

Man Utd 3-0 - Fulham
Sunderland 1-1 Manchester City
Tottenham 3-1 Blackburn
Birmingham 2-1 Everton
Bolton 4-0 Wigan Athletic
Burnley 1-2 Wolves
Chelsea 4-1 West Ham Utd
Stoke City 0-0 Aston Villa
Hull city 1-2 Arsenal