London, England, United Kingdom

Manchester United asserted its superiority once more Sunday as the Red Devils pummeled rival Chelsea, 3-1, to claim the top spot of the English Premier League ladder.

With first half goals by Chris Smalling, Nani and Wayne Rooney, Manchester United improved to 5-0-0 (15 points) this season at the expense of their old rival Chelsea.

Rooney, remarkable for the Red Devils in the past four games, scored his 9th goal of the season after tapping home a pass from John Terry in the 44th minute.

Armed with a 3-0 lead, the Red Devils suddenly got relaxed and seasoned striker Fernando Torres capitalized it by tallying a score to put Chelsea two goals down with still over 40 minutes left to play.

Although Rooney missed a penalty shot in the 57th minute, Manchester United's defense managed to bounce back from the earlier blunder and shut down Chelsea (3-1-1, 10 points) for good in the succeeding minutes.

Meanwhile, Manchester City's winning streak came to an end Sunday as Fulham pulled off a 2-2 draw against the reigning FA Cup champion.

Coming off a four game winning streak, the Blues dominated the first half and headed into the locker room with a 2-0 lead following two brilliant goals by Sergio Agüero (17', 46')

However, Fulham struck back in the second half as Bobby Zamora (54') and Danny Murphy (75') found the back of the net to make it a 2-2 contest.

With the draw, Manchester United (4-1-1, 13 points) moved two points behind the top-ranked Red Devils in the English Premier League Standings.

Meanwhile, Fulham (0-3-2, 3 points) failed once more to get their first win of the season but they nevertheless nabbed their third draw.

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