Newcastle United 0-3 Manchester United – First half treble leaves the Magpies plucked

Goals from Jonny Evans, Patrice Evra and Tom Cleverley helped Manchester United to victory against a Europa League hungover Newcastle at the Sports Direct Arena.

After both teams had won their European encounters it was time to prove again in the Premier League – especially for Manchester United after last week’s defeat by Tottenham which saw them slip down the table. Alan Pardew made two changes to the starting eleven from the victorious Europa League match against Bordeaux. Ferguson and Cabaye started instead of Taylor and Bigiriman. Sir Alex Ferguson sent his team out to fight with three changes: in midfield Carrick and Kagawa started while Fletcher and Anderson were left on the bench and Wellbeck was in attack instead of Hernández. 

The Red Devils kept the ball and tried to unlock the home side’s defence and the breakthrough came in the 8^th minute. When a corner was swung in on 8 minutes  Evans got rid of his defender and jumped higher than Demba Ba and headed the ball into Harper’s net. It was the defender’s first goal of the season.

Seven minutes later Evra doubled the lead in similar circumstances; the French defender was allowed to walk  into the box unchallenged before unleashing a header that left Harper with no chance. 

To make the travelling fans happier Cleverley scored his first goal of the season. He received the ball from Rooney and then let go a cross-come-shot which beat Harper and hit the top corner to give Manchester United an unassailable lead. 

Newcastle manager Alan Pardew called on the FA to punish United striker Robin Van Persie for an elbow on Yohan Cabaye, but the FA today announced they would take no retrospective action.

Richard Samu, football correspondent