Two goals from Wayne Rooney capped a comfortable 4-0 victory for Premier League leaders Manchester United over Aston Villa at Old Trafford.First half strikes from Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez put United in control at the break before Rooney added a brace in the second period.

Roma scouts, watching the Red Devils ahead of their Champions League clash on Tuesday were given much to contemplate as United ran the show from start to finish.

Ronaldo was the first to test Scott Carson with a low shot from the edge of the area on 12 minutes which the Villa keeper did well to turn around the post.

The Portuguese winger was not to be denied and put United into the lead with the most audacious of flicks five minutes later.

Villa failed to deal with a United corner which landed at the feet of Ronaldo, who flicked the ball behind his standing foot, through the legs of Martin Laursen and past Carson into the Villa net.

In mercurial form again, Ronaldo turned provider on 33 minutes, crossing from the right for Tevez to head the home side's second from close range.

The second half begin in frenetic fashion with Rooney wasting a great opportunity to put Villa out of sight, rolling wide of the target when one-on-one with Carson.

Substitute Shaun Maloney was instantly presented with a chance to make Rooney pay for his miss but the Villa substitute also failed to find the target with only Tomasz Kuszczak to beat.

Wilfred Bouma deflected Ronaldo's volley onto the bar before Rooney was put through on Carson again. This time the England striker made no mistake, rounding the keeper to grab United's third on 53 minutes.

Maloney drew a fantastic save from Kuszczak after he had cut inside Wes Brown but Rooney grabbed his second and United's fourth with a quarter of the game remaining.

After he had hit a post and Tevez had headed substitute Owen Hargreaves' cross wide with the goal gaping, the United number 10 swept home to round off a nice one-touch move involving Michael Carrick, Tevez and Ronaldo.

Rooney was correctly denied a hat-trick by the linesman's flag late on as United cruised home to maintain their lead at the top of the Premier League.

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