Premier League wrap: United level with City

Manchester United moved level on points with local rivals City at the top of the Premier League after a 3-0 win over Bolton Wanderers.

United had the chance to go ahead early in the first half but Wayne Rooney saw his penalty saved by Adam Bogdan in the Bolton goal.

Paul Scholes opened the scoring at Old Trafford just before half-time with his first goal since coming out of retirement.

Danny Welbeck and Michael Carrick then made the win safe with goals in the second half to keep Alex Ferguson’s side hot on the heels of their city rivals.

However the defeat leaves Owen Coyle’s side in the bottom three.

“Well, I think that it would have been ideal to have got to half-time at 0-0,” Coyle said.

“Having said that I thought second half for 25 minutes, I thought that we would get the equaliser at that point and I thought that the second goal was, as disappointing as the first one was 30 seconds before the break, the second one proved pivotal to the game.”

“I felt the third goal was very harsh on us but that’s the nature of playing the champions and teams who compete in Champions League finals.”

Title challengers Tottenham Hotspur missed the chance to join United at the top after they were held 1-1 at home to Wolves.

Stephen Fletcher gave the visitors the lead at White Hart Lane before Luka Modric levelled things up.

But despite plenty of pressure from Harry Redknapp’s side they failed to find the winner.

“I’ve never said to anybody that we’re going to win the league, I only answer the question ‘is it possible?’. Of course it’s possible, it’s possible for Liverpool to still win the league if they went on a run of 12 or 13 games – it’s possible, but it’s unlikely and that’s all I’ve ever said about Tottenham,” Redknapp said.

“It is possible, but it’s Manchester City, Manchester United who will be red-hot favourites to win the league but if we have a fantastic run in the second half, like we have had in the first half of the season, it could happen.”

Chelsea stay fourth after they picked up a tight 1-0 win over Sunderland.

Frank Lampard got the decisive goal for Andre Villas-Boas’ side when he finished after Fernando Torres had hit the bar.

Gary Cahill watched the game at Stamford Bridge with his move to Chelsea expected to go through over the next 24 hours.

“It will never be easy against Sunderland and that was proved again. We were trying hard to find a second goal to find more confidence to take the game through. We couldn’t and we left the game on the edge, which made things more difficult. But we showed great spirit and solidarity to hold on to the win,” Villas-Boas said.

In other games Blackburn Rovers beat Fulham 3-1 to take them out of the relegation zone despite having striker Yakubu sent off in the first half.

Liverpool lost more ground on the top four with a 0-0 draw at home to Stoke while Aston Villa and Everton drew 1-1 in their game at Villa Park. Norwich City won 2-1 over West Bromwich Albion.