Rooney hat-trick helps Man Utd close gap

By Mitch Phillips

LONDON (Reuters) - Wayne Rooney scored a two-penalty hat-trick as Manchester United won 4-1 at Portsmouth on Saturday to trim Chelsea's Premier League lead to two points.

Ryan Giggs also struck for the champions who now have 31 points from 14 games, two behind Chelsea who play at third-placed Arsenal (25 points) on Sunday.

Fourth-placed Tottenham Hotspur and fifth-placed Aston Villa meet at Villa Park later on Saturday while Manchester City remain sixth on 22 after they were held 1-1 at home by struggling Hull City to record a Premier League record seventh successive draw.

West Ham United beat Burnley 5-3 while Wigan Athletic bounced back from last week's 9-1 hammering by Tottenham Hotspur by beating Sunderland 1-0.

Rooney earned the headlines with his hat-trick but in truth the England striker, along with several of his United team mates, otherwise had a quiet game.

Portsmouth, who have beaten United and drawn with them at Fratton Park in the last two seasons as well as knocking them out of the FA Cup at Old Trafford last year, were the better team for much of the first half in their first game under manager Avram Grant following the midweek sacking of Paul Hart.

However, they paid for missing several good chances when United went ahead with a Rooney penalty after 25 minutes after he had been brought down by Michael Brown.

The referee evened things up seven minutes later with another hotly debated penalty award when he decided that Frederic Piquionne had had his shirt pulled and Kevin Prince Boateng scored it.