Two red cards allowed Manchester United to claim a 2-0 Premier League win against Wigan Athletic at Old Trafford without playing well.

United might have been punished for a lacklustre performance, but the justified dismissals of Antolin Alcaraz and Hugo Rodallega inside four second-half minutes effectively settled the game.

Patrice Evra had headed United in front on 45 minutes, and Javier Hernandez added a second with a superb diving header late on.

Wayne Rooney made a substitute appearance on his return from injury, but could not find the net.

Defeats to Chelsea and Arsenal made it a perfect afternoon for Sir Alex Ferguson's men, who are now level on points with the Blues atop the Premier League.

United extended their unbeaten run at the start of the season to 14 games, but they lack the flair and swagger of Arsenal's 2003/04 'Invincibles', or of countless other Ferguson sides.

That they are level at the top of the table is down to the deterioration of their title rivals and their obdurate never-say-die attitude, which is certainly admirable but hardly entertaining.

Federico Macheda got the nod to play up front supported by Gabriel Obertan, with Rooney and Hernandez on the bench, and Dimitar Berbatov left out of the squad altogether.

The pair conjured nothing to worry United's bigger guns. Macheda, normally so vital and energetic when used as a substitute, was a passenger for much of the game.

Obertan, meanwhile, shone fleetingly, most notably when his quick feet left Alcaraz for dead and the Wigan captain earned a yellow card for a late trip.

Most of United's best work came through Park Ji-Sung and Nani, who showed his usual hunger for the ball. The Portuguese winger went close on 12 minutes with a long-range shot that Ali Al-Habsi tipped behind.

But Wigan created the better chances. A Nemanja Vidic slip presented first Rodallega then Jordi Gomez with a chance, but the Spanish winger volleyed over from 10 yards.

On 37 minutes Charles N'Zogbia embarked on a bustling run that left no fewer than four opponents in his wake, but Edwin van der Sar charged out of his goal to block the Frenchman's shot.

And a minute later, Rodallega found the time and space to hit a powerful overhead kick, but the shot was wayward.

Evra ensured United ended a difficult first half in the best possible way in the 45th minute. Al-Habsi hesitated over Park's cross from the right, and Evra met it at the far post with a stooping header that bounced low into the opposite corner - just his second Premier League goal in nearly 150 appearances.

Ten minutes into the second half, Rooney came on for his first appearance in over a month, following a week of intensive fitness training in Oregon.

He received polite applause from the Old Trafford crowd, but hardly an ovation befitting a returning hero. Which, based on this season's performances and his contract farrago, he isn't.

The match was effectively settled by a flurry of cards around the hour mark. On 59 minutes Alcaraz saw red for a second late challenge, this time on Darren Fletcher, that left Martin Atkinson with no alternative.

Then Rodallega was sent off for a needless tackle on Rafael. Although the Colombian took the ball, he went in two-footed with his studs showing - a surefire recipe for dismissal in the modern game.

Rooney went close to a goalscoring return on 71 minutes, heading goalwards from a Rafael cross, only for Al-Habsi to deny him.

The England striker should have scored late on, but failed to get any purchase on his shot after Nani's cross from the right, and he passed it tamely back to Al-Habsi.

By that point, he had been upstaged by Hernandez, who converted a superb low, diving header from a Rafael cross on 77 minutes to put the result beyond doubt.