Manchester United 2 West Ham 0

The Portuguese forward opened the scoring on 14 minutes, latching on to a Nani cross to slot home.

And he doubled the lead on the half-hour after an outrageous piece of skill from Dimitar Berbatov fooled James Collins and allowed the Bulgarian to square for Ronaldo to slide home from close range.

The Hammers offered little in the way of attacking threat other than an audacious Craig Bellamy free-kick from 40 yards and a weak Luis Boa Morte effort guided straight into the arms of Tomasz Kuszczak,

Valon Behrami was stretchered off with a calf injury on the stroke of half-time and could be a doubt for Saturday's trip to Middlesbrough.

Manager Gianfranco Zola was realistic about his side's fourth straight defeat.

He said: "They are champions of Europe so it's difficult, but at least they gave everything in the second half.

"I have a great belief in my players. I trust them very much and I am sure this bad spell will be over soon."

West Ham: Green, Faubert, Collins, Upson, Ilunga, Behrami (Boa Morte, 44), Bowyer (Sears, 69), Mullins, Etherington (Collison, 46), Di Michele, Bellamy. Unused subs: Lastuvka, Davenport, Lopez, Reid.

Bookings: Collison, Collins.

Manchester United: Kuszczak, Rafael (Neville, 81), Vidic, Ferdinand, Evra, Ronaldo, Fletcher (Carrick, 69), Anderson, Nani (Rooney, 69), Tevez, Berbatov. Unused subs: Foster, O'Shea, Park, Giggs.

Goals: Ronaldo, 14, 30.

Attendance: 75,397