Hernández, a striker from Mexico, turned in Nani's low cross after 17 minutes, then completed a one-two passing combination with Wayne Rooney in the 74th.

Late goals from Rooney and defender Fabio da Silva wrapped up a victory ahead of United's matches against Chelsea on Tuesday and Liverpool next Sunday.

"There are big games ahead, and it's a good start," United Manager Alex Ferguson said. "To win 4-0 away from home at a place like Wigan is very good, it's an acid test going to Chelsea and Liverpool."

In the battle against relegation, Wolverhampton Wanderers climbed off the bottom with a 4-0 victory over Blackpool.

Wigan is now being kept out of last place by only West Ham, which is 2 points behind and hosts Liverpool on Sunday.

At Wigan's DW Stadium, Hernández justified Ferguson's decision to start him instead of Dimitar Berbatov by producing an early goal.

While at the other end of the field, United goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar marked his 250th appearance with a string of fine saves denying Victor Moses, Ben Watson and Maynor Figueroa.

After Hernández's opener, Rooney failed to head in a second for United before collecting Hernández's pass and feeding him to score again.

Rooney found the net in the 84th after meeting a square ball from Berbatov, who had replaced Hernández. The substitute Fabio slotted home the fourth from Darren Fletcher's cross three minutes later after being left unmarked at the back post.

In the first half, Rooney avoided any sanction for catching midfielder James McCarthy on the back of the head with his elbow in an off-the ball incident.

"In the second half I thought we were excellent," Ferguson said. "We had to hang on a bit at times."

Wolverhampton's match was overshadowed by the death of the former defender Dean Richards at age 36 on Saturday morning. Richards, who made 145 appearances for Wolves between 1995 and 2001, died after a long illness.

PODOLSKI SPARKS COLOGNE Lukas Podolski's late winner gave Cologne a 1-0 win over Freiburg in the German Bundesliga to extend his team's winning run at home.

Podolski, a forward for Germany, scored in the 88th minute when he lifted the ball over Oliver Baumann for his 12th goal of season.

Cologne has won five in a row at home and moved up to 11th in the standings.

Christian Schulz scored in the last minute as Hannover won at St. Pauli, 1-0.

Hannover moved into third place, pending the outcome of Bayern Munich's late game against league-leading Borussia Dortmund.

Elsewhere, Mainz won at Hoffenheim, 2-1; host Kaiserslautern tied Hamburg, 1-1; and Raúl González equalized in host Schalke's 1-1 draw against Nuremberg.

Cologne failed to make the most of its early chances as it dominated the game, but Podolski decided the game when he raced forward to control the ball before sending the ball over Baumann into the right corner.

St. Pauli missed a number of chances against Hannover, which was playing without its top scorer, Didier Ya Konan, before Schulz — a defender — rose high to score from Sergio Pinto's late corner.

It was the first time Hannover has won a Bundesliga game without Ya Konan since he joined the club in 2009. The previous 11 games without him ended in defeat.

ANOTHER BERTH FOR GERMANY Germany will gain a fourth place in the Champions League in 2012-13 at Italy's expense, the Bundesliga said on Friday.

Starting in 2012, four Bundesliga teams, instead of three, will be eligible for the Champions League, while the fifth- and sixth-place clubs will be entered for the Europa League.

"Italy are no longer able to take over third spot this season," the German league said in a statement. "The new ranking gives Bundesliga teams three starting spots in the group stage and a fourth in the playoff games of the competition."

Three Serie A teams, instead of four, will be eligible for the Champions League, with the top two in the group stage and the third entering the qualifying phase. The fourth- and fifth-place clubs will enter the Europa League.

Germany is currently behind England and Spain in the coefficient ranking of UEFA, the sport's European governing body.

Reinhard Rauball, a league executive, said he was confident that Germany could eventually move higher in the rankings.

On Wednesday, the European champion Inter Milan lost at home to last season's runner-up Bayern Munich, 1-0, while Italy's other two clubs in the last 16 of the Champions League, A.C. Milan and Roma, both lost their first-leg matches at home.

Sampdoria was knocked out in the qualifying stage.

On Thursday, Serie A's last representative in the Europa League, Napoli, was eliminated after a 2-1 defeat by Villarreal, raising the possibility that there will be no Italian teams in the next round of European competitions.

Among German clubs, along with Bayern's win, Schalke 04 drew at Valencia in the Champions League, and while VfB Stuttgart was eliminated in the Europa League after losing at home to Benfica, Bayer Leverkusen reached the last 16 by beating Metalist Kharkiv.

JITTERS IN BRAZIL São Paulo will "without question" host the opening match of 2014 World Cup, according to the city's mayor, even though work has yet to start on its stadium.

Mayor Gilberto Kassab told reporters that construction, the start of which has been repeatedly put off, should finally begin in April, barely three years before the tournament will take place.

"We can say that without question we will have the World Cup opening match in São Paulo, in Itaquera, in the stadium of Corinthians," Kassab told reporters.

The São Paulo stadium is the biggest of many headaches facing the 2014 World Cup hosts. Initial worries about crumbling infrastructure and rampant crime have been exacerbated by delays in the building or reconstruction of stadiums.