Manchester United eased past Sunderland in their Boxing Day fixture at Old Trafford, to stay top of the Premier League. Two goals from inform striker Dimitar Berbatov, strengthen their position at the top of the league as they are now unbeaten in their 17 league games this season.

The victory gives the Reds a five and six point lead over Arsenal and Chelsea respectively, having played the same amount of games. Arsenal now face Chelsea in the Monday night fixture, which will leave United in an even stronger position as one or both teams will drop more points, which could effectively put them out of the race for the Premier League title.

In a relatively one sided fixture, Manchester United never really looked troubled, as the Sunderland players looked to still be suffering the effects of eating too much Christmas dinner.

Berbatov now moves onto 13 league goals scored this season, as the much criticized Bulgarian looks to have shaken off past troubles, and he is now showing the sort of form that commanded his £30 million transfer fee from Tottenham Hotspur.

United were ahead after just four minutes and it was quite remarkable that they didn’t score several more before half time. The Reds piled on the pressure, hitting the goal posts twice and spurning several goal scoring opportunities, as first Wayne Rooney and then Ryan Giggs missed the chance to put United further in front. Sunderland failed to secure a single shot on target during the first half.

Berbatov scored 5 goals in his last start, and for a while it looked like a repeat performance may have been likely. As he hit the post and narrowly sent a shot into the side netting of the goal, on another day both efforts may have gone in.

Wayne Rooney, who hasn’t scored a goal in open play since last March, looked threatening as United pushed for a second goal to seal the victory. For a while in the second half, it looked as though United would regret those missed opportunities as Sunderland pushed for an equalising goal.

It was United, however, that doubled their lead after 57 minutes, when Berbatov’s shot took a huge deflection off Sunderland defender Anton Ferdinand and into his own goal. Berbatov nearly completed his third hat trick of the season late on, but was denied by a good save.

The 2-0 victory was very comfortable for United and despite Wayne Rooney’s goal drought, the void is being filled quite nicely by Berbatov as United look firm favourites to secure another premier league title.

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