MANCHESTER: Wayne Rooney’s four-goal performance helped defending Premier League champions Manchester United move to the top of the table for the first time in more than three months with a 4-0 victory over Hull.

United’s first goal came after Park Ji-Sung played the ball into the path of Paul Scholes, who drilled in a vicious shot which Hull goal keeper Boaz Myhill could only parry. Rooney responded quickly, gathering the loose ball before burying his 17th goal of the season.

Rooney then scored in the 82nd minute and completed his hat-trick just three minutes later. The 20th goal of Rooney’s increasingly remarkable season followed in injury-time as he collected Dimitar Berbatov’s neat flick, saw three defenders back off, and converted his shot from 12 yards.

Spanish La Liga

Madrid: Barcelona moved eight points clear of Real Madrid at the top of the Spanish league with a comfortable 3-0 win at lowly Valladolid on Saturday.

Two goals in as many minutes from Xavi (20 min) and Dani Alves (22) set the tone before Lionel Messi scored his sixth goal in three games to take his season’s tally to 15. Real are now under extreme pressure to respond with a home win over Malaga or risk Barcelona running away with the title. It is exactly halfway through the season and Barca are still unbeaten and their tally of 49 points from 19 games is just one less than their record set last season.

In other matches, Deportivo La Coruna climbed up to fourth with a 3-1 home win over Athletic Bilbao. Filipe Luis scored the opener on 49 minutes and Juca added a second after 59 minutes before a Diego Colotto (79) own goal tested Depor’s nerves in the closing stages but Pablo Alvarez made it 3-1 late on.

Earlier, Sevilla beat Almeria 1-0 at home.