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United go top after 100th league goal

The champions, without in-form striker Wayne Rooney, laboured at Molineux but Scholes pounced after 73 minutes to put United on 63 points, two ahead of Chelsea who are in FA Cup action on Sunday.

Scholes’s effort was his 100^th Premier League goal.

Arsenal also turned up the heat on Chelsea, beating Burnley 3-1 at the Emirates to move level on 61 points with Carlo Ancelotti’s side. But for wayward finishing by Nicklas Bendtner the Gunners would have gone second on goal difference.

As it was, goals by Cesc Fabregas, Theo Walcott and Andrei Arshavin were enough to leave Burnley mired in the relegation zone having managed just one point on the road this season.

Burnley seemed content to sit deep and allow Arsenal to do all their neat passing in front of them.

The onus was on Walcott to find a way through and show himself worthy of a place in England’s World Cup squad but though the winger had some early success against his full back he failed to provide much in the way of convertible crosses.

Instead it was the eye-of-a-needle passing of Fabregas and Samir Nasri that eventually opened the massed Burnley ranks and enabled the Spaniard to cleverly tuck in the opener after 34 minutes.

Hamstring strain

Fabregas limped off a few minutes later with a hamstring strain and manager Arsene Wenger said he would not know until Sunday whether it would rule the midfielder out of Tuesday’s Champions League game against Porto.

Arsenal paid for their profligacy when David Nugent was given space to run through the middle and lift the ball over keeper Manuel Almunia five minutes into the second half.

Walcott restored the lead 10 minutes later with a well-taken curling shot but while the fans sat back to await a goal rush, the misses left them nervous before Arshavin finally killed it off in stoppage time.

With an easier-looking run-in than either of their two rivals, Arsenal remain in the hunt for their first title success since 2004.

“We have a great togetherness, that is for sure. When you have gone through what we have this season and stand where we are you have to be mentally strong,” manager Arsene Wenger told Sky Sports News.

“Everybody buried us 10 times and we are still there. We have belief and hunger so we will fight.”

Wenger said he was worried the missed chances might have cost his team but remained confident in Bendtner.

“Nicklas’s game was quite strange today, his overall contribution was quite good but he missed the finishing and he knows that,” he said. “But the team didn’t pay for it and next time he’ll put them in.”

Bolton Wanderers collected a welcome first away win since September when they triumphed 2-1 at West Ham United to edge further clear of the relegation zone.

Early goals by Kevin Davies and on-loan Arsenal midfielder Jack Wilshere — his first in the league — made the difference though West Ham pulled one back a couple of minutes from time after Bolton had Tamir Cohen sent off.