Two goals from Wayne Rooney put Manchester United back on top of the Premier League for the first time in five months when it beat West Bromwich Albion 2-0 and Manchester City surprisingly lost 1-0 at Swansea City Sunday. Rooney took his tally to nine goals from his last six matches and 26 for the season, opening the scoring with a clever volley in the 36th minute and doubling the lead with a clinical 71st-minute penalty at Old Trafford. The win lifted the champion to 67 points from 28 games, one more than Manchester City which is second after leading the table since the middle of October. United manager Alex Ferguson was a happy man after his team bounced back quickly from its shock home Europa League defeat by Athletic Bilbao. “It was a surprising day for us I suppose, but we needed that performance after the disappointment of Thursday,” he told Sky Sports News. United was installed by pundits as the new favorites to win what would be an unprecedented 20th title and Ferguson was delighted to have hit the top. “I am happy to be there because only a few weeks ago we were five, then seven points behind them, now we are one point ahead, so we have turned around eight points and that's credit to the players and shows the resilience of our squad because, as everyone knows, we have had a lot of injuries,” he said. In the day's late game, Norwich City drew 1-1 at home with bottom-placed Wigan Athletic which saved a point with a well-taken 68th-minute equalizer from Victor Moses who rounded goalkeeper John Ruddy to score. The result left Wigan bottom on 21 points, one behind Wolverhampton Wanderers and Queens Park Rangers, who both lost Saturday. Schalke downs Hamburg In Berlin, Schalke 04 closed in on a Champions League place and pushed Hamburg SV toward the Bundesliga relegation zone with a 3-1 win Sunday. Werder Bremen thumped Hanover 96 3-0 in the day's other game with Claudio Pizarro, Sebastian Proedl and Markus Rosenberg sharing the goals. Schalke's win kept it fourth with 47 points, and moved it within one point of third-placed Borussia Moenchengladbach and a potential place in the group stage. Borussia Dortmund, held 0-0 at Augsburg Saturday, leads with 56 points, five ahead of Bayern Munich which thumped Hoffenheim 7-1.
