Manchester United have basically won their 19th English Premier League title on Sunday when they beat Chelsea 2 – 1 at Old Trafford.

The victory, secured thanks to goals from Javier Hernandez and Nemanja Vidic, gives Sir Alex Ferguson’s side a six-point lead with two games remaining in the Premier League season. Only a minor miracle will now prevent them from securing a fourth league title in five seasons, and surpassing the overall record they currently hold with Liverpool.

Any hopes Chelsea had of taking top spot with a victory were undone as early as 36 seconds into the game when David Luiz failed to cut out a pass from Park Ji-Sung and Javier Hernandez, clinical as ever, beat Petr Cech for the 19th goal of his debut season in England.

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Manchester United will face Barcelona in the finals of the Champions League competition at Wembley after they ravaged Schalke 4 – 1 (aggregate 6 – 1) last night in the second leg semi-final at Old Trafford.

First-half goals from Antonio Valencia and Darron Gibson ensured there was no way back for Schalke, who were already two goals down from the first leg, and a late double from Anderson completed a handsome victory.

For Gibson in particular it represented a fitting riposte to the critics who forced him off Twitter last week after spending barely two hours exposed to a demanding public.

And Ferguson got exactly what he wanted too, namely the chance of revenge over Barcelona manager Pep Guardiola, who was watching from the stands, for that one-sided encounter in Rome.

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Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson complained about referee Chris Foy’s refusal to not award a penalty to his team in their 1 – 0 defeat at Arsenal over the weekend.

Aaron Ramsey’s second-half goal – his first since January 2010 – saw United’s lead remain at just three points from Chelsea, whom they face next week at Old Trafford.

Both sides claimed a penalty at the Emirates Stadium, but the officials were unmoved when first United captain Nemanja Vidic handled the ball in the area and Michael Owen went down following a challenge from Gael Clichy.

Although Ferguson admitted Arsenal had a good case for their own penalty, he felt hard done by.

“It’s too big a game not to get the decisions right,” Ferguson told Sky Sports News.

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Manchester United squandered an opportunity to move nine points clear at the top of the English Premier League table when they were held to a 0 – 0 draw by Newcastle United at St. James’ Park.

The visitors were guilty of poor passing throughout, though Wayne Rooney and Ryan Giggs missed good chances.

And striker Javier Hernandez felt he was fouled in the box by Danny Simpson late on, only to be booked for a dive.

Newcastle deserved a point, though, and might have had a penalty of their own when Anderson felled Peter Lovenkrands.

Both decisions could have gone either way, with contact made on each occasion, but referee Lee Probert waved the appeals away to ensure an absorbing clash ended goalless at St James’ Park.

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Yaya Toure scored to take Manchester City through to the FA Cup final and thereby ending Manchester United‘s treble dreams. The scoreline was 1 – 0 at Wembley and City now hope to end their 35-year trophy drought.

Manchester United robbed Chelsea of their only chance left for silverware last night at Old Trafford. Chelsea and Shakhtar Donetsk just weren’t good enough on the night as United and Barcelona progressed respectively to the semi-finals of the Champions League without much trouble.

United earned their place in the last four for the fourth time in five seasons with a 2-1 success over Chelsea – who ended the match with 10-men after Ramires was sent-off in the second-half – and a 3-1 triumph on aggregate which will heap the pressure on the losers’ manager Carlo Ancelotti.

United – whose goals came from Javier Hernandez and Korean Park Ji-Sung – will play either Schalke 04 or holders Inter Milan, with the Italian side requiring a miracle in Germany on Wednesday as they trail 5-2.

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Manchester United have not won at Stamford Bridge in almost a decade, but that all changed on Wednesday night when they took a slender lead in the first leg of the Champions League quarter-final by beating Chelsea 0 – 1.

Wayne Rooney‘s foul-mouthed celebration after scoring a hat-trick at West Ham on Saturday may have landed him in hot water with the Football Association, but he carried on his fine form against Chelsea with an away goal for United to take back to Old Trafford for the return match next Tuesday.

The crucial moment arrived midway through the first half when Ryan Giggs superbly controlled a long pass from Michael Carrick and cut the ball back for Rooney to slide home a composed finish that went in off the post.

Chelsea almost equalised on the stroke of half-time as Fernando Torres guided an effort against the post and Frank Lampard’s volley on the rebound was cleared off the line by Patrice Evra.

Torres went close again in the second half but still could not open his account for the Bluesas Edwin van der Sar pulled off a magnificent acrobatic save to claw out his well-placed header.

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