Ronaldo's Trickery Pokes Fun at Keegan

Manchester United cut the deficit at the top of the Premier League to a more manageable three points on leaders Arsenal when Cristiano Ronaldo predictably proved too sharp for Newcastle's beleaguered defence.

The free-scoring winger created the opening goal for Wayne Rooney and added the next two himself to take his total for the season to 29. He might have had more, but he only played for 67 minutes. It was that easy, as the traveling supporters correctly observed.

The only good news for Newcastle was that Manchester United did not hit six, as they did at Old Trafford last month. The bad news was that they could easily have had eight or nine. Relegation is beginning to be mentioned here, Michael Owen and Alan Smith discussed the possibility in the match program. The general view is that Newcastle are not in the mire yet, though only because the teams at the bottom are showing few signs of stirring. The way they are going, their good start under Sam Allardyce could be all that saves them.

Manchester United were a little bit too wound up to begin with, as if conscious that Arsenal's draw at Birmingham had put them under extra pressure to take advantage. The visitors spent the first 20 minutes trying to be too clever for their own good. Few of the assorted tricks and feints came off, and Steven Taylor and Abdoulaye Faye initially found the United attack less of a handful than they might have imagined.

Nani and Ronaldo were being closely shackled and the Newcastle crowd relished some hard but fair tackles going in, yet when the pair swapped wings midway through the first half it produced an elegantly simple opening goal. Ronaldo chased a ball down the left and beat Habib Beye with one of his trademark handbrake turns, before whipping in a perfect cross for Rooney to arrive at the far post and leave Shay Given in the Newcastle goal with no chance.

How Newcastle bounced back, if at all, was important to Kevin Keegan, who had said beforehand he was fed up of seeing heavy defeats as a result of his players feeling sorry for themselves once the first goal was conceded. To their credit, they did not buckle immediately. James Milner had a couple of opportunities, the last of which needed a touch from Wes Brown on the line to divert it behind for a corner. Inevitably though, pressing forward for an equalizer did not make them any more solid at the back and Manchester United were profligate in converting only one more of the chances they created before half time.

Ronaldo rolled a shot wide in the 38th minute with both Rooney and Carlos Tévez free in the middle, then two minutes later Tévez missed the target with a free header. Just when it seemed Newcastle might reach the dressing room to hear encouraging words from their manager, they were undone by another goal of stunning simplicity on the stroke of the interval. Michael Carrick looked up, spotted Ronaldo's run and a through ball down the middle and the winger's reliable finishing did the rest. Keegan looked to have aged by several years when he stood up to leave the dugout at the break.

As in their last game at Aston Villa a fortnight ago, Newcastle had to make a goalkeeping change, Steve Harper coming out for the second half in place of Given. Edwin van der Sar was in action first, saving from Damien Duff with his knees as Newcastle tried to get back into the game, though the pattern of the first half was soon repeating itself. When Tévez and Nani launched a breakaway, with Rooney sprinting fully 50 yards to try to get on the end, Ronaldo squandered the cross with a preposterously high shot.

Stung into making amends, Ronaldo demonstrated a better finish in the 56th minute, though only after falling over and losing possession, then seeing Newcastle give it straight back to Darren Fletcher. Brushing off Taylor's somewhat desperate attempt to intervene, Ronaldo advanced on goal and calmly beat Harper to end any semblance of a contest. Unless you count bear-baiting, which is what the taunting of Keegan by the visiting supporters for the rest of the game resembled. Not because the Newcastle manager cannot handle ironic chants of 'Keegan for England' or 'Keegan is back', but because being tied to this club at the moment is a bit like being chained to a stake and poked with sticks.

There was a glimmer of cheer for Keegan when Faye poked home a consolation goal from close range, but never a hope of getting any nearer to Manchester United. As if to emphasize it, Rooney restored the three-goal cushion with a curling shot in the visitors' very next attack and Louis Saha made it five in stoppage time. That's nine goals in two Saturdays now for Sir Alex Ferguson's team, with Arsenal out of the FA Cup and beginning to stutter in the league. He must love it.