Premier League: Bolton 0 Manchester United 5

Manchester United eased to a 5-0 win at Bolton on Saturday with Wayne Rooney bagging his second hat-trick in as many games.

United romped to a 3-0 lead inside 25 minutes with a goal from Javier Hernandez and a brace from Rooney, while Bolton struggled to cope with their visitors’ attacking ability.

In the second period, both strikers grabbed another goal each, but could have added several more as the match neared the heights of United’s last league match – an 8-2 victory against Arsenal.

It did not even take Hernandez five minutes into his first start of the season before he opened his account for the year as he flicked the ball home from the near post, but a lot of credit should be given to Nani who delivered a brilliant low cross from the right.

United came close to extending their lead in the 12th minute as the visitors hit Bolton on the counter-attack, but Rooney could not quite reach Hernandez’s cross from the right and Gary Cahill conceded a corner.

They did, however, extend their lead just shy of the 20-minute mark as Rooney got on the end of a Phil Jones cross, poking the ball out of the reach of Jussi Jaaskelainen into the bottom far corner.

Minutes later, United had their third, thanks to a sublime run from Jones as he skipped past several tackles, before Rooney was on hand to smash home a rebound from six yards.

Hernandez thought he had added a fourth minutes later but was flagged for offside and the score remained as it was at the break.

The second half started with Bolton looking to put pressure on David De Gea in the United goal, but at first he was equal to Mark Davies’ shot from just outside the box, and soon after he rose well to catch a Kevin Davies header.

Hernandez scored his second goal after a deflection and then, with 23 minutes remaining, Rooney claimed his hat-trick, smashing a Nani pass into the bottom left corner after the Portuguese winger received a brilliant pass from Ryan Giggs.

That goal consolidated a remarkable feat with Rooney becoming the first player in Premier League history to score eight goals in four matches.

United came close to adding a sixth five minutes from time as Nani found Hernandez in the box with a clever pass, but the Mexican tried to square the ball to Anderson and the pass went wide.