With Rovers scrapping for their lives at the foot of the table, they were anything but sacrificial lambs and it took a moment of true brilliance from Antonio Valencia with 11 minutes remaining to break the deadlock. And five minutes later Ashley Young snuffed out any thoughts of a Rovers comeback by beating Paul Robinson with a fizzing drive from the edge of the box.
The gap at the top is five points and with United playing before City at the weekend, the Red Devils could open it out to eight points.
United made a bright start, with Wayne Rooney demonstrating his range of passing with a raking 50-yard ball that put Grant Hanley in a spin. His failure to clear his lines presented Javier Hernandez with a chance, but he snatched his shot and pulled it wide of target.
The Mexican came close to atoning shortly afterwards when showing great striking instincts to anticipate a ball into the box and fire on target, but a combination of Rovers keeper Paul Robinson and the post denied him.
It took Rovers some time to get a foothold, but they have pace to burn in the shape of Junior Hoilett and he collected a layoff from Yakubu and drove deep into United territory before unleashing a shot that forced a fine diving save out of David De Gea.
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