15.50 – Speaking to Sky Sports, Newcastle boss Alan Pardew: “He’s picked a team that he thought he might pick, which is pretty offensive. That’s a bit of a gamble coming here.”

Alex Ferguson: “They’ve had a problem with centre halves like ourselves. You hope we get through these games. As you know we’ve been shipping goals and hopefully the four in there will shore that up.”

16.00 – United go with an offensive-looking XI with Wayne Rooney, Robin van Persie, Danny Welbeck and Shinji Kagawa all included. The hosts will be banking on Senegalese pair Demba Ba and Papiss Cisse causing problems for Rio Ferdinand and Johnny Evans here.

16.06 – Early pressure from the away side. Tom Cleverley chips to the opposite corner of the Newcastle box, where the ball is worked to Danny Welbeck. He scuffs a strike, however, and Steve Harper collects easily.

16.25 – Hoard Webb shows Kagawa a yellow card for taking Hatem Ben Arfa’s legs from beneath him.

16.44 – Newcastle growing in confidence and are probing for openings. Jonas Gutierrez is the latest player in Webb’s book for a clumsy sliding tacke on Cleverley.

Two minutes remain in the first half and United have themselves a corner. Carrick glances on to the far post but it’s hist over the head of Rooney and runs out of play.

16.56 – Some results from today’s other Premier League games:

• Southampton 2-2 Fulham
• Liverpool 0-0 Stoke
• Tottenham 2-0 Aston Villa

17.13 – UN-BE-LIEVABLE. I don’t know how that has stayed out. Ba’s looping header from a Shane Ferguson cross comes back off the crossbar, where Cisse heads it back towards goal. De Gea scurries back to claw it away but has the ball already crossed the line??

Replays show a large part of the ball is over but whether the whole ball is, it’s extremely difficult to call. Either way, Newcastle haven’t been awarded the goal.

17.27 – Van Persie with the neatest of chips over Harper but he is rightly ruled offside.

Alan Pardew has brought on Shola Ameobia and Vurnon Anita for Ferguson and Cisse.

17.32 – GOAL! Newcastle United 0-3 Manchester United (Tom Cleverley)

ANd that’s the game for United. Rooney plays back to Cleverley, who curls the ball over the head of Harper and into the top corner. Could well have been a cross for RVP, who was loitering at the back post, but he’ll happily claim it.

17.45 – Cabaye goes down after an off-the-ball incident with Van Persie. He’s been caught by an elbow but luckily for the United play, Webb hasn’t seen it.

Giggs on for Van Persie.

18.01 – United come flying out of the blocks to take an early 2-0 lead and, despite a controversial goal-line incident, record a clean sheet after last week’s defeat at the hands of Spurs. That win puts them second in the table – four points behind Chelsea on 15.

Newcastle were bad for the first two goals but showed spirit and will feel a little unlucky not to have registered a goal in the 90 minutes.