Manchester United returned to winning ways with a regulation 3-0 home win over a much-changed Wolverhampton Wanderers.

The champions were not at their best but cruised to victory against a team that offered little in attacking terms. Wolves boss Mick McCarthy raised eyebrows by changing all 10 out-field players from the team that beat Tottenham at the weekend and his team’s limp display is bound to attract criticism.

In truth the visitors defended their goal with some comfort for half an hour, but two mistakes from corners allowed United to take a decisive 2-0 half-time lead.

Ronald Zubar needlessly handled a Darron Gibson corner on 30 minutes and Wayne Rooney calmly scored from the spot to make up for a couple of earlier efforts that were saved by Marcus Hahnemann.

United double their lead from another Gibson corner on 43 minutes when Nemanja Vidic evaded the Wolves defence to head firmly past Hahnemann, who perhaps could have done better.

That goal all but ended the match as a contest and the second period was a matter of how many the hosts would score. They only added one more to their tally, Luis Valencia finishing neatly on 66 minutes after good work by Dimitar Berbatov, who otherwise had a quiet night.

United cruised through the rest of the match and end the night level on points with Chelsea at the top of the Premier League.

MUFC:
Patrice Evra, Dimitar Berbatov, Wayne Rooney (Owen), Nemanja Vidic (Fletcher), Michael Carrick, Paul Scholes, Antonio Valencia, Gabriel Obertan (Welbeck), Darron Gibson, Tomasz Kuszczak, Ritchie De Laet

Subs:
Michael Owen, Anderson, Ben Foster, Ji Sung Park, Danny Welbeck, Fabio, Darren Fletcher

Wolves:
George Elokobi, Andrew Surman, Marcus Hahnemann, Greg Halford, Ronald Zubar, Matthew Hill, Michael Mancienne, George Friend (Jarvis), Kevin Foley, Stefan Maierhofer (Iwelumo), Segundo Castillo

Subs:
Wayne Hennessey, Karl Henry, Sylvan Ebanks-Blake, David Jones, Christophe Berra, Matthew Jarvis, Chris Iwelumo

Goals:
Wayne Rooney ‘30 (pen)
Nemanja Vidic ‘43
Antonio Valencia ‘66