Slick United punish Potters

Manchester United turned in an impressive performance to defeat Stoke 5-0 at Old Trafford.

Ronaldo nets twice in 5-0 victory for United

Manchester United turned in an impressive performance to defeat Stoke 5-0 at Old Trafford. Cristiano Ronaldo opened the scoring with a swerving free-kick after just three minutes and United continued to dominate for the remainder of the first half, without creating too many clear opportunities. They made it 2-0 just before the interval as Michael Carrick swept a fine finish past Thomas Sorensen from the edge of the area. Dimitar Berbatov, in sparkling form throughout, added a third in the 49th minute with a volley from close range and substitute Danny Welbeck then scored a spectacular fourth late on. Ronaldo netted with another free-kick in stoppage time to complete an emphatic victory.

100th goal

Ronaldo set United on their way with his 100th goal for United after Amdy Faye had clattered into Carlos Tevez 25 yards out. Sorensen's fumbling attempt to save meant the goal was not quite in the class of his strike against Portsmouth last season. But still, for a landmark 100, it was not too bad. If Sir Alex Ferguson was waiting for a second, he needed to be patient. Ronaldo, the impressive Park Ji-sung and Tevez all had chances to get it. But it was not until Carrick collected Ronaldo's pass in first-half stoppage time and somehow thundered a shot through a crowd of Stoke bodies that United finally managed to double their lead. It was a decent return from a first half lacking not just Rio Ferdinand, Wayne Rooney and Ryan Giggs, who were all injured, but also a monster throw-in from Rory Delap. Ferguson laughed it off when it was mentioned on Friday but a steep slope around the pitch about two feet from the touchline meant Delap could not get enough momentum to cause the type of damage he wanted. And any hope Stoke might have had disappeared straight after the restart as slack defending from Tony Pulis' men allowed Berbatov to not only control Tevez's fiercely-driven pass but turn onto it as well. Offered that kind of space, it would have been rude of the Bulgarian not to slam a volley past Sorensen as well.

Trio of debutants

From then on, United were able to try to tiptoe their way past Stoke's giant defenders. It should have suited Ronaldo down to the ground but the red mist, so normally associated with Rooney, had begun to descend. He took a swing at Amdy Faye which, remarkably, he was able to get away with, although it did end up in a face-to-face confrontation with the former Portsmouth man as the niggling went on. Ronaldo might have been one of the men replaced by Welbeck, Darron Gibson and Manucho as Ferguson handed Premier League debuts to the trio. Welbeck made an instant impact, the England Under-19 forward crashing home in impressive fashion from 20 yards. Ronaldo had the last laugh on his tormentors too as he powered home another free-kick, his ninth goal of a campaign that only started in the middle of September.

Manchester United	Team Statistics	Stoke City
5	Goals	0
2	1st Half Goals	0
12	Shots on Target	0
6	Shots off Target	2
4	Blocked Shots	0
3	Corners	0
6	Fouls	16
2	Offsides	2
0	Yellow Cards	2
0	Red Cards	0
88.4	Passing Success	74.6
23	Tackles	17
73.9	Tackles Success	76.5
67.9	Possession	32.1
59.8	Territorial Advantage	40.2