LONDON, 18 December 2005 — Revitalized Manchester United slashed Chelsea’s Premier League lead to six points yesterday with a 2-0 victory at Aston Villa.

With the champions facing a tough trip to London rivals Arsenal today, United needed to keep up the pressure with a win and a goal in each half by strikers Ruud van Nistelrooy and Wayne Rooney ensured they did so.

Chelsea have 43 points from 16 games with United on 37 points from 17 matches. Third-placed Liverpool, on 31 points, are in Japan taking part in the Club World Championship.

Elsewhere, fifth-placed Bolton Wanderers crushed Everton 4-0 at Goodison Park and Portsmouth marked manager Harry Redknapp’s first home match back in charge with a 1-0 win over fellow strugglers West Bromwich Albion.

Senegalese forward Henri Camara hit a hat trick to give Wigan Athletic a 3-0 home win over Charlton Athletic and England striker Michael Owen also scored three in Newcastle United’s 4-2 win at West Ham United. Fulham beat Blackburn Rovers 2-1.

United quickly took control at Villa Park and almost opened the scoring when South Korean midfielder Park Ji-sung fired against the post.

Two minutes later Van Nistelrooy put them in front when he collected a Darren Fletcher pass, shrugged off his marker and lifted the ball over Villa goalkeeper Thomas Sorensen.

Rooney added a second with an emphatic low finish from Park’s pass five minutes into the second half.

Villa’s Milan Baros struck the bar but United finished the match in exhibition mode with Portuguese winger Cristiano Ronaldo producing some party tricks to provide a cross that Van Nistelrooy could not quite direct into the net.

United have now won all 21 of the matches in which England striker Rooney has scored for them and the victory was a further morale-boost to Alex Ferguson’s side after their costly Champions League exit.

Everton’s mini-revival has ground to a halt, with Greek striker Stelios Giannakopoulos’s double strike the highlight of Bolton’s emphatic victory at Goodison. His first was a deft finish after 75 minutes and his second a long-range pile driver as Bolton joined fourth-placed Tottenham Hotspur on 30 points.

Portsmouth earned their first home win of the season thanks to Bulgarian striker Svetoslav Todorov. His 56th-minute winner assured Redknapp of a perfect reception in his first match back at Fratton Park since his controversial switch to their south-coast rivals Southampton. The win pulled third-from-bottom Portsmouth to within three points of fourth-from-bottom West Brom. Camara doubled his tally for the season with a sparkling treble against Charlton to end Wigan’s poor recent run and lift them up to sixth place.

Bayern Round Off Bundesliga Year With Victory

In Frankfurt, Bayern Munich won 2-1 away to Borussia Dortmund on Saturday to strengthen their grip on the Bundesliga going into the six-week mid-season break.

Victory in the last round of matches in 2005 increased Bayern’s lead to seven points, although that will be cut by at least a point on Sunday when second-placed Hamburg SV play away to third-placed Werder Bremen.

Iran midfielder Ali Karimi made the breakthrough for the champions eight minutes after the break and Peru striker Claudio Pizarro slotted in a second 20 minutes later. Florian Kringe pulled one back with a header 11 minutes from time. It was Bayern’s 28th victory from 34 league matches in 2005 — a Bundesliga record, according to the club.

With half the league program played, Bayern have 44 points from 17 games. Hamburg are second on 37, with Bremen two points further back. Schalke 04 lost further ground when they went down 2-0 away to improving VfB Stuttgart in their first match since coach Ralf Rangnick was fired. Schalke, who finished runners-up to Bayern last season, are fourth with 31 points — 13 behind the leaders. Stuttgart are up to fifth on 25.

Bayern’s performance against Dortmund was typical of the way they have played in recent weeks, with workrate making up for generally unimpressive play. They were lucky to go in at half-time with the game still goalless, as a young Dortmund side created much the better of the chances. Oliver Kahn had to make a fine double save from David Odonkor and Ebi Smolarek following up in the 15th minute.

Rangers Beat Hearts to Close In on Leaders

In Glasgow, champions Rangers beat Hearts 1-0 to gain ground in the Scottish Premier League title race yesterday.

Danish winger Peter Lovekrands cracked in the goal 10 minutes from the interval following a goalmouth scramble when Hearts failed to clear a Bob Malcolm free kick. Hearts had Lithuanian Saulius Mikolliunas sent off with five minutes left. Rangers now have 30 points from 19 matches while leaders Celtic top the standings on 44 from 18 and play at Inverness Caledonian Thistle today.

Second-placed Hearts have 41 from 19 while in third, Hibernian have 37 from 19 games after beating Motherwell 2-1.