Manchester United stole Manchester City's thunder again when a Wayne Rooney treble sparked a 5-0 rout of Bolton Wanderers after its neighbor breezed past Wigan Athletic 3-0 with a hat-trick from Sergio Aguero on Saturday.

Champion United was three goals up after 25 minutes thanks to one goal from Javier Hernandez, making his first start of the season, and two from Rooney who has scored in every English Premier League game this term.

Hernandez added another for the visitors in the 58th minute before Rooney struck his third 10 minutes later to complete back-to-back league hat-tricks.

"They (Rooney and Hernandez) are a constant threat. Their movement and the pace they play at was really first class for us today," manager Alex Ferguson told ESPN television.

Like two weeks ago, when City recorded a 5-1 win at Tottenham Hotspur only to be trumped by United's 8-2 thrashing of Arsenal, Ferguson's side outgunned Roberto Mancini's team to sit top of the table above City on goal difference.

Yesterday, Nigeria striker Peter Odemwingie's early goal gave West Bromwich Albion a 1-0 victory at promoted Norwich City, earning his team its first points of the campaign.

Norwich is still without a win after four games back in the top division while West Brom had lost its first three games of the season.