Cristiano Ronaldo
LONDON – Cristiano Ronaldo scored two goals in as many minutes Sunday to give Manchester United a 2-0 win over Blackburn in the Premier League.
Ronaldo scored in the 34th and 35th minutes against Blackburn, which had David Dunn sent off in the 53rd.
Manchester United moved ahead of Arsenal, but the Gunners can move back into first place on Monday when they visit Reading.
"I’m really happy with that result because they are a good side," said Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson. "With the front players we’ve got, one is going to produce something on the day we feel – today it was Ronaldo."
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Also Sunday, Tim Cahill scored an injury-time equalizer to give Everton a 1-1 draw at Chelsea, and Gabriel Agbonlahor scored the winning goal moments after making a goal-line clearance in Aston Villa’s 2-1 victory over city rival Birmingham.
Tottenham won only its second league game this season by beating Wigan 4-0, and Bolton and Middlesbrough drew 0-0. Manchester City stayed third after a 0-0 draw at Portsmouth.
Manchester United lead the league with 30 points, followed by Arsenal with 27, Manchester City with 26, Chelsea with 25 and Liverpool with 24.
Ronaldo headed his first goal after taking a cross from Ryan Giggs. A minute later, Ronaldo shot into the corner of the goal in United’s next attack.
Dunn was sent off after picking up his second yellow card for a foul on United striker Louis Saha, who was starting his first league game this season after recovering from injury.
Wayne Rooney was missing after hurting his ankle in a training mishap on Friday.
Cahill scored with a bicycle kick after Juliano Belletti failed to clear a shot by James McFadden. Didier Drogba had given Chelsea the lead with a header in the 70th minute.
Chelsea twice nearly scored in the 28th minute. Shaun Wright-Phillips had a shot saved by Everton goalkeeper Tim Howard, who then leapt to block a shot from Frank Lampard.
"I thought every 10 minutes we had a chance to win the game," Chelsea manager Avram Grant said. "We want to build our style of play – in attack especially. We are going well but need to score more goals.
"We will be in the title race, especially if we continue to play football like this all the time."
Manchester City goalkeeper Joe Hart made several saves to keep a clean sheet at Portsmouth. Hart leapt to push a shot from Glen Johnson onto the crossbar in the first half and later hit the post. David Nugent also hit the post late in the game.
Man City’s best chances were from Darius Vassell and Martin Petrov.
Agbonlahor cleared a header from Birmingham defender Liam Ridgewell off the line in the 85th minute. Two minutes later, he headed in the deciding goal at St. Andrews.
"It’s a local derby. It’s a massive game for everybody at both clubs and to get the three points is what we needed," Villa striker Ashley Young said. "We always thought we could go on and get the second goal and we did."
Villa took the lead in the 10th after Ridgewell scored an own-goal. Villa midfielder Stilian Petrov crossed the ball from the right side of the field and it hit the leg of Ridgewell and bounced into goal.
Ridgewell joined Birmingham in August from Aston Villa, where he had played for the previous seven years.
Mikel Forssell headed in a cross from Daniel de Ridder to level the score for Birmingham in the 62nd.
Birmingham played midfielder Wilson Palacios in the first half. He was dropped last week after the kidnapping of his younger brother Edwin in his native Honduras.
Jermaine Jenas scored twice for Spurs and set up another goal. He tapped in his first goal in the 13th minute, and rounded Wigan goalkeeper Chris Kirkland to score his second in the 26th.
Aaron Lennon added the third goal in the 34th with a volley, and Darren Bent scored the fourth in the 72nd after receiving a cross from Jenas.
Tottenham had last won a league game on Aug. 18, when it beat Derby 4-0.
Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard scored in the last nine minutes Saturday to help Liverpool beat Fulham 2-0. Also Saturday, it was: Sunderland 1, Newcastle 1; and Derby 0, West Ham 5.
Source: ENG: Ronaldo leads Man U past Blackburn
