Manchester United easily shut down Aston Villa on Sunday with Wayne Rooney scoring two goals.

The 4-0 victory at Old Trafford allowed United to have a 5 point lead over the league's second place Manchester City. With only four games left in the league, United only needs 8 more points to secure the English Premier League's trophy this season.

"The name of the game now is for us to enjoy ourselves and play with the expression we did today," said Sir Alex Ferguson, manager of United.

"You can never be too confident, my experience tells me that there's always something that's going to bite you in the bum. But hopefully we'll avoid that."

Just one day before United had their game against Villa, Manchester City trashed Norwich City in a 6-1 victory, giving pressure for the United to maintain their lead. Last Wednesday, United lost, quite surprisingly, to Wigan Athletic. However, United was not affected by the shocking lost or the pressure from City as the Sunday's game showed.

Seven minutes into the game, Rooney converted a penalty that Ashley Young earned, giving an early 1-0 lead. Villa manager Alex McLeish said the penalty was controversial and that Young played for it.

"'I don't think it was a penalty," McLeish said. "I thought Ashley threw his leg into Ciaran Clark's leg. Ciaran was static. He planted his feet firmly in the ground and then he tried to pull his leg away"

"I certainly felt it was a soft decision. Ashley got away with that one today," complained McLeish.

Ferguson, however, was certain that the penalty was justifiable.

"I think [Young] played for the penalty," said Ferguson. "I think it was a dramatic fall. He overdid the fall but it was a penalty, there's no doubt about that."

The penalty controversy was not a major issue, since United scored three additional goals in the game. Danny Welbeck scored the second goal right before the first half was over. In the second half, Rooney scored his second goal of the game and Nani scored the final goal in the extra minute, ending the game with the score of 4-0.

Aston Villa had couple of scoring moments, especially during the beginning when Andreas Weimann attempted to shock United, but United's goalkeeper David De Gea successfully saved them.

This game also allowed Rooney to add two more goals in his race for this year's Golden Boot award. At the moment, Robin van Persie of Arsenal is leading with 27 goals, followed by Rooney with now 24 goals.