Manchester United opened up an eight-point lead at the top of the English Premier League when it beat 10-man Queens Park Rangers 2-0 at Old Trafford yesterday.

United won with a highly debatable first-half penalty which led to the sending-off, and a trademark rocket shot from Paul Scholes in the second half, to move on to 79 points with six matches remaining.

City, which led the title race for five months before falling behind United a month ago, has 71 points and will attempt to cut United's lead back to five points at the Emirates against an Arsenal side looking to avoid defeat to move back into third place above Tottenham Hotspur.

United took the lead after 15 minutes when Wayne Rooney scored his 30th goal of the season after referee Lee Mason awarded the hosts a controversial penalty.

Ashley Young, who was in an offside position anyway, appeared to dive after the slightest of touches from QPR skipper Shaun Derry who was promptly shown the red card by the referee, QPR's seventh dismissal of the season.

"I thought it was offside," United manager Alex Ferguson said. "Derry has just had a little tug that's enough to unbalance Ashley. As the last defender, the referee has no option."

QPR manager Mark Hughes was less convinced. "We are desperately disappointed with the performance of the referee," he said. "The assistant didn't have the opportunity to put his flag up because the penalty had already been given.

"The boy (Young) has gone over too easily and the referee has bought it unfortunately."

Rooney shot low and hard to Paddy Kenny's right and although the goalkeeper almost got a hand to the ball, the goal virtually settled the game as a contest.

United doubled its lead after 68 minutes when Scholes scored his third league goal since coming out of retirement in January.

QPR failed to clear a corner properly and the ball fell to Scholes who smashed it low and hard past Kenny from the edge of the penalty area to seal United's 11th win out of its last 12 league matches.

It could have won by a bigger margin too with Kenny pushing a point-blank shot from Rafael onto the bar when it looked odds-on the defender would score, while United midfielder Michael Carrick also hit the post

Although QPR battled well, it never looked like saving the game after its early setback and the result pushed it back into the relegation zone on goal difference behind Blackburn Rovers.

With three of the bottom five looking set for the drop, Bolton Wanderers have 29 points, Blackburn, QPR and Wigan Athletic all have 28 and Wolverhampton Wanderers are bottom on 22 points.

On Saturday, it was: Sunderland 0, Tottenham 0; Bolton 0, Fulham 3; Chelsea 2, Wigan 1; Liverpool 1, Aston Villa 1; Norwich City 2, Everton 2; West Bromwich Albion 3, Blackburn 0; and Stoke City 2, Wolves 1.