Rooney breaks his duck as United ease past sorry West Ham

Wayne Rooney scored for the first time since March to set Manchester United on the way to a 3-0 victory over a poor West Ham side.

The England striker calmly slotted home from the spot after Ryan Giggs had been fouled before laying on an excellent set for Nani, who skipped round several challenges and fired home.

Dimitar Berbatov acrobatically sealed the win with an overhead kick from a dinked Nani cross with 20 minutes remaining to leave the Hammers routed to the bottom of the league.

Chelsea remained top though when they kept up their 100% start with a 2-0 win over Stoke.

Florent Malouda continued his fine form with the opening goal, clipping the ball over the advancing keeper after a fine run and through-ball from John Terry.

Didier Drogba sealed the win from the penalty sport after Nicolas Anelka was tipped by Stoke keeper Thomas Sorensen.

Arsenal kept pace with the top two when they beat Blackburn 2-1 in Saturday's early kick-off.

Theo Walcott opened the scoring with a fierce low finish, latching onto a slide-rule pass from Robin van Persie.

Shortly afterwards El Hadji Diouf and Mame Biram Diouf combined to level the scores with the former pulling the ball back for the latter to score his first Blackburn goal.

Andrei Arshavin sealed the win just after the break with Walcott inadvertently the provider, Cesc Fabregas' shot hit the winger and fell kindly to Arshavin who stroked it home.

Aston Villa bounced back from the thrashing at Newcastle and a European exit with a hard-fought 1-0 win over Everton on Sunday.

Luke Young scored the only goal of the game nine minutes in, when he combined with Ashley Young and shot high into the roof of the net.

Earlier in the day 10-man Bolton had come from behind to draw 2-2 with Birmingham.

Roger Johnson opened the scoring early on, prodding home after Cameron Jerome had diverted a cut-back into his path.

Craig Gardner doubled the lead when he stabbed home, at the second attempt, after Jerome had broken the offside trap and nodded the ball into his path.

Kevin Davies pulled one back from the spot for the home side after he was fouled in the box before substitute Robbie Blake earned the point with a fine free-kick.

Darren Bent scored a last-gasp penalty to give Sunderland a 1-0 win over Manchester City after he was pushed in the box by Micah Richards.

Liverpool ran-out 1-0 winners over West Brom with Fernando Torres fired home after being picked out by Dirk Kuyt to end a swift counter-attacking move.

Blackpool were denied a win in their first ever Premier League game at Bloomfield Road by a late Dickson Etuhu goal in a 2-2 draw with Fulham.

Bobby Zamora opened the scoring, heading home Moussa Dembele's cross on the half-hour mark.

John Pantsil fired Blackpool level with an emphatic own goal, trying to put the ball over the bar after it had deflected into his path off another Fulham defender.

Debutant Luke Varney then put the home side in front when he latched onto Brett Ormarod's cross and finished well.

Etuhu spoiled the day though, with Dembele again the provider, firing home from the edge of the box after being sent clear by the new striker.

Wigan picked up the shock result of the weekend, overturning a 9-1 defeat in the corresponding fixture last season, to beat Tottenham 1-0 at White Hart Lane.

Hugo Rodallega scored the only goal of the game, neatly controlling Mohammed Diame's cross and firing home across the Spurs keeper.

Finally, Wolves and Newcastle battled to a 1-1 draw in a physical game at Molineux.

Sylvan Ebanks-Blake opened the scoring, controlling Jelle Van Damme's cross-field pass and firing home.

In-form Andy Carroll secured the point for the visitors when he headed in Joey Barton's free-kick.