Now, the Red Champions are flamboyant and back on track. Going into the game, Manchester United occupied the eighth place in the league standings, 9 points behind joint leaders Chelsea and Liverpool who both won their encounters earlier in the day.

The squad which faced West Bromwich

Alex Ferguson knew how important it meant to insure a victory and he did not hesitate to fill in a strong squad against promoted club West Bromwich Albion.. Cristiano Ronaldo and Berbatov were the two men in the starting line who could not enjoy the best of luck during the 2010 World Cup qualifiers as their respective countries failed to secure vital wins. The hunger to win was burning in their belly and one man who was determined to continue a very successful run of matches was England’s Wayne Rooney. The Manchester United number 10 was his country’s hero, as England enjoyed their best ever start to a World Cup qualifying campaign.

A controversial goalless first half

Manchester United played very positively and won numerous corners. But West Bromwich dealt with the pressure and managed to hold the champions to a goalless first half. However, the quality of the referee’s officiating was hugely arguable. Rooney thought he had put his side in front when he fired the ball into the net in the first period, but the referee ruled his goal out, insisting that Rooney had pushed the Bromwich defender during his run. Besides this controversial decision, many other things came out. Manchester United also had a couple of appeals for a penalty turned down. On the other end, West Bromwich looked to upset the host at times but Van der Sar was always alert to clear his lines.

The perfect quadruple

The Red Devils came stronger in the second period, enraged by the controversial goalless score line… Who can escape the punishment of the reigning champions when hunger and anger burn in their stomach and heart?

The wonder kid, Wayne Rooney, finally got his early birthday present, giving Manchester United the lead. At last, he could celebrate a real goal!

Cristiano Ronaldo was outstanding and the winger finally caught West Bromwich’s defence, finding himself one on one with Scott Carson before striking the ball past the goal line to double Man United’s deserved lead on 69 minutes.

And then, two minutes later, came the glorious moment for the highly criticised Bulgarian captain, Dimitar Berbatov. The 32 million pounds signing finally scored his first ever Premiership goal this season under the Manchester United shirt.

West Brom knew they had lost any chance of getting away with at least a point, but courage helped them dream of a consolation.

However, this never happened…

Instead, the Portuguese connection – with Cristiano Ronaldo squaring the ball to his compatriot Luis Nani who slaughtered it into the net on 90 minutes – sealed Manchester United’s emphatic 4 – 0 win.

This victory helped Manchester United break into the top four temporarily for the first time this season. The double title winners have now gone six matches unbeaten, since their defeat to Liverpool in September. Manchester United have won all of their five last matches in all competitions, and they are yet to concede a goal since Babel’s winning strike at Anfield.

The Reds will go in Tuesday’s Champions League encounter at home to the Scottish Champions Celtic, fresh from Saturday’s vital 4 – 0 victory.

Written by: Angela Asante

The League Champions face West Bromwich Albion in the late kick-off at 4:30 GMT and the Reds are with no doubt the hot favourites to win this encounter.

Manchester United have so far had no major injury reports on their players after the international games unlike Liverpool who will have to deal without Torres for at least ten days, or Arsenal who will miss the services of Bacari Sagna amongst others.

Wayne Rooney is expected to continue his amazing goal-scoring form for the club, while Cristiano Ronaldo will also hope to get in the EPL goal chart race.

In general, Manchester should be able to get all three points and any other result will come out as a real shock.

Written by: Angela Asante