Ronaldo puts United in pole position to retain title

Manchester United's Portuguese midfielder Cristiano Ronaldo (C) beats Bolton Wanderers' Jamaican defender Ricardo Gardner during their English Premier League football match at Old Trafford. Manchester won 2-0.

Cristiano Ronaldo continued his amazing goalscoring form to help establish a three-point cushion for Manchester United at the top of the Premier League table as Sir Alex Ferguson's side beat Bolton 2-0 at Old Trafford on Wednesday.

Ronaldo was handed the captain's armband by Ferguson for the first time and marked the occasion by scoring both goals to take his tally for the season to 33 goals.

With eight games of the season remaining, United are now clear favourites to win the title. Not only have they opened up a gap between themselves and nearest challengers Arsenal at the summit, but they also boast a much better goal difference than Arsene Wenger's side.

Ferguson had bemoaned his side's "charitable" finishing before this game yet he need not have worried with Ronaldo in outstanding form.

After seeing his side struggle to overcome doomed Derby County four days earlier having been eliminated from the FA Cup the previous weekend, Ferguson had demanded his players rediscover their touch in front of goal.

The message was heeded by Ronaldo, who continued his incredible season by scoring his 23rd and 24th league goals of the campaign.

His first arrived in the ninth minute, the Portugal midfielder hooking the ball past Ali Al Habsi from 12-yards after Matthew Taylor had only half cleared Nani's corner.

Bolton Wanderers' English forward Kevin Davies (L) and Manchester United's Spanish defender Gerard Pique compete for the ball during their English Premier League football match at Old Trafford. Manchester won 2-0.

Bolton are one of the few teams to have beaten United this season in the Premier League, courtesy of a Nicolas Anelka goal at the Reebok in November.

Anelka is long gone and so too, it seems, are Bolton. They have scored just five goals in nine league games selling the France striker to Chelsea for 15 million pounds in January.

Yet they were presented with an excellent chance to get back on level terms in the 18th minute when Danny Guthrie, on loan from Liverpool, delivered a super cross for Kevin Davies.

Bolton's lone striker stretched out a leg to connect with the ball but his goal-bound effort was bundled away by keeper Tomasz Kuszczak, starting his first game since being red-carded in the FA Cup defeat to Portsmouth.

It proved a key moment in the game as seconds later Ronaldo established a two-goal cushion with a superbly executed free-kick after picking himself up off the floor after being fouled by Abdoulaye Meite.

Despite a five-man wall protecting his goal, Al Habsi got nowhere near Ronaldo's powerful, dipping effort which brought Old Trafford to its feet.

Bolton's keeper, a stand-in for injured first-choice Jussi Jaaskelainen, at least had the satisfaction of denying Ronaldo's fellow countryman Nani from making it 3-0 with a smart save from a free-kick as United started the second half in determined mood.

This was Bolton's fifth successive league defeat, their worst sequence for two years, yet Megson's side at least went down fighting.

While they offered very little in the opening 45 minutes, it required the save-of-the-night by Kuszczak to deny Nicky Hunt after the substitute had let fly on the hour mark.

United could however have won by a more handsome margin, Habsi denying Ronaldo his hat-trick with a good stop in the 67th minute. On this evidence, it will take something special to prevent United from retaining their title.