THE SUNDAY TIMES
For 63 days of the season so far, they were in a desert. Dry, barren, and just seven goals from eight league games. On Friday, their manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, decreed that there would soon be a deluge and 24 hours later, it rained goals at Old Trafford. The four they got yesterday might have been six or seven.
In the resumption of normal service, there is one statistic that may have grown men shivering in Liverpool and both sides of London: United began yesterday's game with nine players on their injury list. They then lost Nemanja Vidic and John O'Shea inside 30 minutes and played for the last hour with Danny Simpson at right-back and Gerard Pique at centre-back. Tomasz Kuszczak, United's reserve goalkeeper, had one worthwhile save to make in the match.
Carlos Tevez, Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo - with two - scored the goals and that will please Ferguson because with Louis Saha still injured, the team needs others to take on the goalscoring duties. But as well as those three played, perhaps the performance that will have most pleased the manager was that of the Brazilian, Anderson.
He came into the game after 20 minutes, thrown into the midfield after Vidic's injury meant O'Shea had to move to centre-back. It took Anderson a few minutes to find his rhythm but as soon as that happened, he was the game's commanding midfield player. Given that he was alongside Paul Scholes, that's some compliment.
Yesterday Anderson wanted the ball at every opportunity, and he used it with the flair you would expect from a technically accomplished Brazilian. When the breakthrough came after 54 minutes, his was the key pass as it split the Wigan defence and gave Tevez half a yard on Kevin Kilbane. What happened next was remarkable.
Kilbane and Tevez reached the ball almost at the same moment but with the surest right-foot touch, the Argentine took the ball inside the defender and then another brilliant touch took him past Chris Kirkland. The ball was then on his left foot and still there were a couple of defenders between him and the goal. No matter, he rifled the shot into the far corner. Outstanding.
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH
When England manager Steve McClaren heard that Manchester United had lost two players in the opening 29 minutes, he must have been reaching for his contacts book in the hope of pulling out some more magical stand-ins. But to his relief, Rio Ferdinand was still a picture of health by the final whistle and all Wayne Rooney's metatarsals were accounted for.
Better than that, Rooney had another goal on his account, his second in a week and as spectacular in its way as the one he scored against Roma, a header of such perfect technique and power that we could have been watching the return of Nat Lofthouse.
The injuries to Nemanja Vidic — after a clash of heads with Marcus Bent and an elbow to the throat from Paul Scharner — and John O'Shea with a dead leg, left United, who had already lost Louis Saha in the warm-up, struggling to find any rhythm as they have been all season.
On a day of just two matches, it also left worried Match Of The Day executives wondering how they were going to fill 20 minutes of air time with a game that did not come to life until the second half. They were off the hook when Carlos Tevez, as bull-like and at times as exciting as Diego Maradona, scored the sort of individual goal that has thrilled United fans over the years.
Cristiano Ronaldo, the world's leading football matinee idol, stole a couple of close-ups by showing off his black eye after scoring, with Rooney, wonderful as his goal was, in danger of being left on the cutting-room floor.
For poor old Wigan, who harried and defended well in the opening 45 minutes, it was an all too familiar story. This was their 18th Premier League game against a top-four side and every one has ended in defeat, proving that survival can be achieved purely against the lesser sides.
THE OBSERVER
Sir Alex Ferguson promised a deluge and it duly arrived as Manchester United climbed to the top of the Premier League by hitting four second-half goals against an increasingly bewildered Wigan.
United almost always score four against Wigan, however, and not even the feast that followed could completely erase the memory of an arid first half that acted only as a terrific advertisement for rugby union.
Not even the World Cup in France has succeeded in bringing together so much talent and so many spectators for so little result, though at least United could legitimately claim they were distracted by injuries. They lost no fewer than three players before the interval, beginning when Louis Saha hurt his knee in the warm-up. That might be par for the course for a striker cruelly caricatured as being made from balsa wood, though United were more seriously disrupted when Nemanja Vidic retired concussed and John O'Shea had to limp off after suffering a dead leg.
United barely carried a goal threat either in the first half, though they should have had a penalty in the fourth minute when Michael Brown pushed Mario Melchiot out of the way in his eagerness to barge Cristiano Ronaldo over in the area. It was as clear a penalty as you could wish to see, yet alone in the stadium the well-placed referee, Mike Riley, viewed it as a fair challenge.
Carlos Tevez shot narrowly over on the stroke of half time after Patrice Evra had snuffed out a rare shooting chance for Paul Scharner, then the Argentine brought the crowd to its feet nine minutes into the second half with a virtuoso piece of balance, pace and finishing.
It was a well worked goal all round; Rio Ferdinand's probing pass forward being transformed by Wayne Rooney's first-time flick and Anderson threading a ball through the Wigan defence for Tevez to run on to. Tevez beat Kevin Kilbane and Titus Bramble first for speed then for control, walked round Chris Kirkland in the visitors goal and placed his shot into the net past defenders on the line.
THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY
The romantic notion that any Premier League team can beat any other took another pounding here as an initially disjointed Manchester United side, missing 11 players and losing another three on the day, settled down to dismiss Wigan's feeble challenge with four second-half goals. After the champions' recent drought - only Derby had scored fewer goals - this sudden flood carried them to the top of the table, at least until Arsenal attempt to roast Sunderland for Sunday lunch.
Wigan, briefly in first place themselves in August but falling fast ever since, have now played the undisputed big four of English football in 18 games over the past three seasons and lost every one. So much for romance. United's injury problems - they lost Louis Saha in the warm-up, then Nemanja Vidic and John O'Shea within the opening half-an-hour - unexpectedly offered the visitors their best opportunity of holding one of the big boys since their very first match at this level, when Chelsea won so luckily at the JJB Stadium with a goal in the last minute.
Even allowing for the absence in attack of England's rediscovered hero Emile Heskey and the equally influential Antoine Sibierski, they were far too timid.
Tomasz Kuszczak, standing in for Edwin van der Sar, was required to make one real save and at times it was almost comical to watch poor Marcus Bent, the lone striker, weighing up the task of taking on four or five defenders. Once United, in contrast, found a rhythm, they seemed to have attackers all over the pitch, and suddenly looked like the old irresistibles. Paul Scholes, forced to sit deep because Owen Hargreaves and Michael Carrick were among those missing, pulled the strings; Carlos Tevez had possibly his best game for the club so far; Wayne Rooney calmed down to profitable effect after a frustrating first half that brought a yellow card; and Cristiano Ronaldo was up to all his old tricks except the ones that involve collapsing to the turf.
Indeed, he is now suffering like the boy who cried wolf - or in his case "penalty" - being denied legitimate appeals because of his reputation. Early in the game, Michael Brown simply barged him over in the penalty area without punishment.
A goal at that stage might - or might not - have persuaded Wigan to adopt a more positive approach. Instead, they hung on until just after the interval, thanks to Chris Kirkland saving superbly as Tevez's cross deflected off Salomon Olembé's head. Meanwhile, Vidic suffered a facial injury that took him to hospital last night, forcing O'Shea from midfield into defence, only to limp off himself with a dead leg. Attacking options had already been limited by Saha straining a knee before kick-off, but at the start of the second half Wigan were suddenly swept away.