London: Manchester United went back to the top of the Premier League with an Old Trafford demolition job on Newcastle United on Sunday that should have brought them more than two Ole Gunnar Solskjaer goals.
The Norwegian converted close-range efforts either side of halftime as United won 2-0 to move to 16 points and above Chelsea on goal difference following the champions' 1-1 home draw with Aston Villa on Saturday.
Bolton Wanderers are third on 14 points after their 2-0 home win over Liverpool on Saturday with Portsmouth fourth on 13 after they went down 2-1 at Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday. Everton and Villa, the only unbeaten clubs in the division, also have 13, as do Reading after their 1-0 win at West Ham United on Sunday.
In the day's other game Blackburn Rovers beat Wigan Athletic 2-1. Manchester United, who lost to Arsenal and drew with Reading in their previous two games after winning the first four, were quickly into their stride on Sunday but had to wait until four minutes before halftime to get on the scoresheet.
Cristiano Ronaldo, again United's most impressive performer, fired a shot against a post and Solskjaer was on hand to knock in the rebound.
Great Intensity
Four minutes after halftime Solskjaer got his second when he diverted a Nemanja Vidic shot beyond Steve Harper. United had already hit a post through Darren Fletcher and Ronaldo rattled the bar with another powerful run and shot as Newcastle fell apart.
"We played with a great intensity and controlled the game throughout," United manager Alex Ferguson told Sky Sports. "Today we were back on song. It was a really terrific performance."
Ferguson also praised Solskjaer, whose career seemed over after a series of knee injuries. "If you are out of the game for two years at his age you obviously have doubts but you might find it difficult to believe that a player at the age of 33 is getting better but that's what we've seen this season," he said.
Newcastle boss Glenn Roeder said his side had been outclassed by the talents of Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney. "You have to say they are young players but who are already world class. The stuff they are producing at the moment was uncomfortably marvellous to watch," he said.
All the post-match talk at White Hart Lane centred on Tottenham's second goal, a Jermain Defoe penalty earned by a blatant dive by Ivorian international Didier Zokora.
That came after Danny Murphy had put Spurs ahead in the first minute and though Nwankwo Kanu pulled one back late in the first half, Spurs took the points.
"The penalty decision, everyone has seen, was farcical," said Portsmouth boss Harry Redknapp. "It's human error, the referee made a mistake, but surely in games of this importance, everybody knows it's not a penalty, surely we can use the technology we've got? It takes less than 10 seconds I'd seen the replay and why can't the fourth official look at that and tell the referee?"
Tottenham manager Martin Jol offered something of a defence for his eight-million pound ($14.95 million) signing from St Etienne. "When it happened I thought it was a penalty, maybe he was anticipating the contact," he said. "It was not a dive, maybe he was off-balance."
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