Manchester United 3 Newcastle United 0: Berbatov leads way as Toon suffer on Old Trafford return

Berbatov was handed a starting berth alongside Wayne Rooney and responded by drilling home an excellent 33rd-minute effort at Old Trafford.

The Bulgarian should have had another goal after half-time but, after Darren Fletcher had doubled the Red Devils' advantage shortly before the break, it was evergreen substitute Ryan Giggs who extended his remarkable record of scoring in every Premier League season when he latched on to Paul Scholes's inspired pass and sent a first-time volley bouncing past Steve Harper.

It was part of another masterclass from man-of-the-match Scholes, who with every game must make Fabio Capello cringe at his failure to lure the 35-year-old out of international retirement for World Cup duty in the summer.

The only real disappointment for United was another blank day for Wayne Rooney, who has now gone 13 matches for club and country since he last scored, against Bayern Munich in March.

Questions will continue to be asked of Rooney until he starts to show the form that established himself as one of the world's leading players last season.

His performances in South Africa were almost too bad to be believed, the nadir coming in England's terrible draw against Algeria in Cape Town.

Yet at times, it almost feels as though Rooney is trying too hard.

His work-rate remains impressive but too often shots are snatched.

He succeeded only in battering a free-kick into the Newcastle wall with one obvious opportunity, then skied Berbatov's nod-back high over the bar when far better was expected.

Even his part in United's second goal was accidental as he failed to control Patrice Evra's low cross and succeeded only in prodding the ball towards Fletcher, whose smart turn and finish brought an admiring nod of approval from the unselfish England man.

Scholes felt United could have scored more but was content with the 3-0 win.

"The most important thing is to win the game," Scholes said. "Maybe we could have scored more but we'll take a 3-0 win on the first day of the season.

"Newcastle came, set their stall out and defended deep. Once we got the goal we were a constant threat.

"A lot of teams come here and try to make it difficult. We just had to tire them out as much as we could.

"Second half especially, I really enjoyed that: creating chances, looking like we were going to score whenever we went forward."

On Giggs's strike, which the Welshman finished following a fine team move, he added: "It was a great goal to watch.

"We kept the ball well and it was a fantastic goal to start off with."