Wayne Rooney took just 52 seconds to find the net as champions Manchester United knocked Manchester City off the top of the Premier League, for a few hours at least, with a 2-0 win at Queens Park Rangers on Sunday. The England striker grabbed his 12th league goal of the season with a diving header off a cross from Antonio Valencia on a bright but bitterly cold afternoon at the smallest ground in the top flight.
Michael Carrick made it 2-0 in the 56th minute with a fine run from midfield to score his first premier League goal in almost two years.
United have 39 points from 16 matches, a point and a game more than neighbours City who were hosting fifth-placed Arsenal in a later kickoff with the score 0-0 at halftime.
Tottenham Hotspur went third on 34 points after beating Sunderland 1-0 at White Hart Lane thanks to a 61st-minute goal from Roman Pavlyuchenko.
Chelsea, who drew 1-1 at relegation-threatened Wigan Athletic on Saturday, fell to fourth on 32. Liverpool climbed to sixth place, ahead of Newcastle United, after winning 2-0 at Aston Villa.
Craig Bellamy scored the first in the 11th and Martin Skrtel made it 2-0 four minutes later. Liverpool's top scorer Luis Suarez twice hit the woodwork in the second half, including a lovely chip over American goalkeeper Brad Guzan.
Rooney's goal was the third fastest of the season so far and United could have made it 2-0 after just three minutes against promoted opponents who last beat them back in the old first division in 1992.
"I thought it was a good performance but I thought we were wasteful of a lot of the chances we had. We should really have had the game won by the 30-minute mark," said Ferguson, whose side were knocked out of the Champions League 10 days ago.
"It's been put down as another day in the history of Manchester United. We don't sit and moan about it, we do something about it. And I think the players have done that," he added of the FC Basel defeat.
Danny Welbeck also had the ball in the net after 24 minutes but was ruled offside and Radek Cerny made two crucial saves in the space of three minutes to keep his side in the game.
QPR had a good chance to equalise just before the break when Jay Bothroyd swept in a low cross that was just too quick for Jamie Mackie to get a toe to at full stretch.
Carrick's goal ended a 70-match drought for the England midfielder and came after he intercepted a sloppy Joey Barton pass in midfield, set off down the pitch and unleashed a shot from the edge of the box that Czech keeper Radek Cerny could not keep out despite getting a hand to.
United face Fulham, Wigan and Blackburn Rovers before the New Year while City have Stoke, West Bromwich Albion and Sunderland as their next three after Arsenal.