Wayne Rooney scored twice as Manchester United showed their defiance to Chelsea with a stylishly attacking performance at White Hart Lane.

It means the Premiership title race is prolonged a little while yet.

Ruud Van Nistelrooy also hit the post and United put in a much-improved display from the goalless disappointment against Sunderland on Good Friday.

Jermaine Jenas pulled one back in the second-half for a Tottenham side which had been dealt a bitter blow when England central defender Ledley King was ruled out with a fractured left foot he sustained at Everton.

It means Tottenham stay four points ahead ahead of Arsenal in the race for the fourth-placed Champions League spot with a mouth-watering London derby against the Gunners coming up next Saturday.

Indeed, Spurs proved here how far they have come under manager Martin Jol. They could easily have won this match and were the better team for long periods. But United had Rooney.

The England striker, who settled his £700,000 gambling debt over the weekend, put United ahead as early as the seventh minute, although it had been Spurs who had made the better start.

They might easily have gone ahead when Jermain Defoe skewed a shot just wide after good work by Aaron Lennon and then when Michael Dawson brought a sharp save from Edwin Van der Sar.

But United punished them for their early profligacy in the most clinical of fashion.

A neat ball from Ruud van Nistelrooy found Cristiano Ronaldo whose precision cross was tapped in with nonchalance from a couple of yards by Rooney.

To their credit Spurs continued to play attacking football and Defoe and Robbie Keane in particular where a handful for the United defence.

They might have equalised when Gary Neville and John O'Shea both challenged for an innocuous high ball and the resulting collision saw the ball loop towards the far post where Dawson met it on the volley but, with van der Sar standing tall, he contrived to send the effort over the crossbar from two yards out.

More wastefulness and once more United made them pay.

This time, however, Spurs were the architects of their own downfall. Lee Young-Pyo dwelled needlessly on a ball in defence, only to be caught in possession by his Korean counterpart Park Ji-Sung.

The United midfielder, who had a 25-strong press corps from Korea watching his progress, fed Rooney in oceans of space.

The outcome was inevitable. A composed take, a deliberate aim and a rasping shot past Paul Robinson.

Jenas pulled one back in the 53rd minute when Nemanja Vidic's clearance from a corner deflected back towards goal off Rio Ferdinand to allow the Spurs midfielder to stab home.

Even so it was United who finished the stronger.

Teams

Tottenham: Robinson, Stalteri, Dawson, Davenport, Lee,Lennon (Barnard 78), Jenas, Carrick, Davids (Murphy 71), Keane,Defoe.

Subs Not Used: Naybet, Kelly, Cerny.

Booked: Stalteri.

Goals: Jenas 53.

Man Utd: Van der Sar, Neville, Ferdinand, Vidic, Silvestre,Park, O'Shea, Giggs, Ronaldo (Brown 90), Rooney, van Nistelrooy.

Subs Not Used: Howard, Evra, Heinze, Saha.

Booked: Vidic.

Goals: Rooney 8, 36.

Att: 36,141

Ref: M Halsey (Lancashire).