Cristiano Ronaldo opened the scoring with a fabulous instinctive back-heel, the 35th goal of a remarkable season for the Portuguese superstar. Carlos Tevez headed in a second from a Ronaldo cross and Rooney applied the finish with a second-half brace, on both occasions from Ronaldo assists.

The win takes United six points clear of Arsenal, despite the Gunners' 3-2 comeback victory at Bolton earlier today.

Rooney told Setanta Sports: "It was a good performance all round and a well-deserved win. It has been a bit frustrating in the last couple of weeks (not to have scored) and I had a chance before I scored today. I was delighted to get the two goals later in the game.

"Each game we get closer (to the title), we have to keep playing our games, playing the way we do and hopefully that will see us through."

Asked how the team would cope with the twin challenges of domestic and European football, Rooney added: "You've got to sort the time balance out and rest players for certain games. Roma (in the Champions League on Tuesday night) is going to be a massive game for us and we prepared the right way with a win."

Sir Alex Ferguson was left praising his side after yet another stunning performance.

He said: "The players reached a peak last week and we continued that today. They realise now it's a race to the line, we need consistency and real focus and we showed fantastic energy, which is a very pleasing aspect considering some of them have been away for internationals.

"(The title) doesn't feel that close for us, but there is great confidence in the way the team is playing and that's always great at this time of the year."

One area of concern for United will be that Michael Carrick, Rio Ferdinand and Patrice Evra all had to be substituted with injuries, Ryan Giggs suffered a knock and could not be replaced and Ronaldo needed ice treatment on his hamstring after the game.