London, England

Striker Robin van Persie ended a two-month goal drought with a penalty kick as Manchester United moved a step closer to regaining the Premier League crown with an easy 2-0 victory over Stoke Saturday at Britannia Stadium.

Van Persie, who was goalless since mid-February, buried a penalty kick past Asmir Begovic in the 66th minute to seal the win that put United 15 points clear of closest rival and defending champion Manchester City with six games to play.

"Today was an important goal for Robin van Persie. He did really good work from Wayne Rooney's pass to get brought down for the penalty," said said United manager Sir Alex Ferguson, whose wards now have 100 goals in all competitions this season.

The loss dropped Stoke to 16th in the standings, just three points off Wigan Athletic in the bottom three.

"You build up to a big game and you want to play high tempo and everything else and you know you give away a bad goal from a set-play, and that settled United and took the steam out of us," said Stoke manager Tony Pulis.

It took just four minutes for United to take the lead when the ball fell to Michael Carrick, who poked it into the corner of the net from the edge of the six-yard box for a 1-0 lead.

The second half came alive when Ferguson fielded United's attacking trio of Wayne Rooney, Van Persie and Javier Hernandez .

Stoke also intensified its attack and created several scoring chances, including a kick by Jonathan Walters that went over the bar just 10 minutes into the second half.

Strikes from distance from Charlie Adam and Kenwyne Jones also forced United goalie David de Gea into action.

However, United was awarded a penalty after defender Andy Wilkinson dropped Van Persie in the area. Van Persie then found the back of the net for a 2-0 lead.

Meanwhile, Stephane Sessegnon, Adam Johnson and David Vaughan scored as Sunderland cruised to a 3-0 win over Newcastle United. The victory was the first for Sunderland at St James Park since November 2000.