Manchester Utd 4 West Ham Utd 1

Victory at Wigan next Sunday will confirm Sir Alex Ferguson's men as champions but the coronation may come even earlier as Chelsea now need to get something - and almost certainly win - at Newcastle to fight on until the final day.

Not even the first-half dismissal of Nani could shake United from their stride as a Cristiano Ronaldo double, a Carlos Tevez thunderbolt and a deflected strike from Michael Carrick gave them another comfortable victory, with Dean Ashton scoring a spectacular overhead kick for the Hammers.

The Red Devils were ahead within three minutes when Ronaldo collected Nani's flick and Lucas Neill's ill-timed slip merely allowed the double Footballer of the Year to charge into the box and unleash a shot which flicked off George McCartney and flew in.

Twenty minutes later they had a second when Owen Hargreaves swung a left-footed cross to the far post which the entire Hammers defence failed to cut out and a quick swivel of the hips from the prolific Ronaldo ensured the ball bounced past Robert Green.

Ronaldo has not been overshadowed very often this season but Tevez did exactly that as he picked up his young team-mate's lay-off, then blasted a 30-yard rocket into the roof of Green's net, the West Ham goalkeeper powerless to resist.

Ashton's smart overhead kick completed a remarkable spell of three goals in six minutes, before Nani lost his head.

Lucas Neill hardly reacted in the most calm manner after Nani had tried and failed to connect with an ambitious overhead kick but the Portugal winger had no excuse for responding the way he did by butting Neill and dismissal was automatic.

But 59 minutes in former Hammer Carrick was offered more room to run into than he could believe before firing home his second goal of the campaign, with Neill again providing the accidental deflection.

Ronaldo's replacement, Darren Fletcher, struck a post with his precise shot, although by then it hardly mattered.