Manchester united 4 hull city 0 : WAYNE ROONEY hit all four goals to fire Manchester United back to the top of the Premier League table

Rooney was at his brilliant best to help the champions to 50 points, two clear of Arsenal and Chelsea.

The England striker was quickly out of the traps as he reacted first after Boaz Myhill could only parry Paul Scholes' stinging drive from 30 yards on seven minutes

He sealed the points on 82 minutes as he made the most of a mistake from Myhill.

Roo rounded off his treble four minutes later with another clinical finish before grabbing his first four-goal display in injury-time.

It was one-way traffic after Rooney's opener at Old Trafford and Nani's long-ranger was always too high, while Park Ji Sung glanced a header wide from Darren Fletcher's cross.

The returning Rio Ferdinand turned a Nani corner into the side-netting before Nick Barmby finally tested Edwin van Der Sar with an angled drive.

Rooney turned onto Nani's cross but his shot flew over after cannoning off Paul McShane.

Nani went down under Geovanni's tackle after a neat bit of skill had taken him into the Hull box, but ref Steve Bennett waved away appeals for a penalty.

Andy Dawson then robbed Michael Owen after Rooney had supplied the inspired through ball.

Ferdinand failed to test Myhill with a header from the corner as United continued to press.

Myhill turned away Owen's acrobatic volley then, after Rooney had released Nani, Kamil Zayatte was forced to concede a corner to prevent Owen tapping into an empty net.

Rooney curled a free-kick narrowly wide and missed another chance in-between a rare Hull attack which ended with Zayatte heading wide.

Rooney's temper was on the boil, though, and he was booked for a poor tackle on Stephen Hunt.

A cleverly disguised Nani pass left Owen with a clear sight of goal again but McShane's last-ditch tackle prevented him from rolling home United's second.

Nani's low cross flashed across goal, with neither Owen nor Rooney able to make contact with despairing lunges.

Rafael almost played Van der Sar into trouble with an underhit back-pass, then Patrice Evra made a fine blocked tackle to halt Bernard Mendy's run.

Rooney's long-range effort beat Myhill but also the keeper's right-hand post and Owen glanced Nani's free-kick wide.