Wayne Rooney scored a second-half hat-trick as Manchester United came from 2-0 down at half-time to beat West Ham United 4-2 and stretch their lead at the top of the Premier League to seven points.
The London side led 2-0 at the break thanks to a pair of Mark Noble penalties, but Rooney got United back into the game on 65 minutes. Two more strikes in the next 14 minutes, his third, a penalty, giving him 100 Premier League goals for Man Utd, turned the game around. Half-time substitute Javier Hernández then completed the scoring with six minutes left as United increased their lead over Arsenal, who drew their third consecutive Premier League match, 0-0 this time at home against ten-man Blackburn.
Third-placed Chelsea’s title hopes are over after they were lucky to get a point at Stoke, Didier Drogba getting the Chelsea goal. Fourth-placed Tottenham had more than one eye on their midweek Champions League clash with Real Madrid as they could only draw 0-0 at Wigan.
Roy Hodgson got a degree of revenge on his former employers as West Brom came from a goal down to beat Liverpool 2-1 and take a massive step towards Premier League survival.
Newcastle United were they day’s biggest winners, 4-1 at home to Wolves, while Birmingham City beat Bolton 2-1 and Aston Villa drew 2-2 at Everton.
