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Wayne Rooney of Manchester United celebrates scoring their first goal during the Barclays Premier League match between Queens Park Rangers and Manchester United at Loftus Road on December 18, 2011 in London, England.

Wayne Rooney took just 52 seconds to find the net as champion Manchester United knocked Manchester City off the top of the English Premier League, for a few hours at least, with a 2-0 win at Queens Park Rangers yesterday.

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 after seizing a sloppy Joey Barton pass in midfield, setting off down the pitch and unleashing a shot from the edge of the box that Czech goalkeeper Radek Cerny could not keep out despite getting a hand to.

United has 39 points from 16 games, a point and a game more than neighbor City which was hosting fifth-placed Arsenal in a later kickoff.

Chelsea drew 1-1 at relegation-threatened Wigan Athletic on Saturday and could lose third place to Tottenham Hotspur, playing Sunderland in an afternoon start. Liverpool was 2-0 up at Aston Villa at halftime in the earlier afternoon match.

Third fastest

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 a promoted opponent which last beat it 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 United manager Alex Ferguson, whose side was 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 Cerny made two crucial saves in the space of three minutes to keep his side in the game.

United faces Fulham, Wigan and Blackburn Rovers before the New Year while City has Stoke City, West Bromwich Albion and Sunderland as its next three after Arsenal.