The defending champions, however, could only keep pace Saturday with first-place Blackburn. The Rovers recorded their first-ever away victory at Wimbledon, a 3-0 rout that included Alan Shearer's 17th goal of the season.
Cantona's eighth of the season in the 36th minute was enough for United to maintain its perfect home league record -- nine wins out of nine -- at home this season. The last visiting English team to score at Old Trafford was Oldham on April 2 last season.
Shearer, Mark Atkins and Jason Wilcox were the goal-scorers for Blackburn, which rebounded Wednesday from its elimination by Liverpool from the League Cup to hand Wimbledon its ninth defeat in 12 games.
The top two teams gained ground on the rest of the league, with third-place Newcastle losing 4-2 to Tottenham. Teddy Sheringham scored a hat trick and assisted on Gheorghe Popescu's goal as Gerry Francis won his first game since taking over as Spurs' manager.
Newcastle was leading the league three weeks ago, but injuries have hit the Magpies hard and the team is now on a run of four league games with a victory.
Ian Rush, who scored a hat trick Wednesday, stayed hot with his 10th goal of the season for fourth-place Liverpool, but Coventry's Sean Flynn equalized two minutes later.
In Scotland, Stranraer had four players sent off -- the first time a team has been reduced to seven men in league history -- in an 8-1 loss to leader Airdrie in a Division One game.
In the Premier Division, Motherwell moved within a point of first-place Rangers with a 2-2 draw at Celtic. On Sunday, Rangers took another giant step toward retaining their Scottish premier league title with an impressive 3-0 away won over Dundee United.
German Bundesliga
Edgar Schmitt scored his fifth goal in six games to lead Karlsruhe to a 3-1 victory over Werder Bremen, allowing Dortmund to extend its lead in the German first division.
The 78th-minute goal by Schmitt, back in action after a knee injury-cause absence, snapped a 1-1 tie Saturday and improved Karlsruhe to 7-7-3, moving within five points of Dortmund.
Dortmund beat MSV Duisburg 1-0 Friday night, raising its record to 11-4-1 and 26 points atop the Bundesliga, clinching the league's fall title. Bremen fell to 10-3-3 and remained in second place, but fell three points of the lead.
Although the fall championship doesn't count toward the league champion, 20 times in 31 Bundesliga seasons the winner has captured the title.
Italian First Division
Gianluca Vialli scored twice in four minutes and Alessandro Del Piero added the game winner in the 89th -- all in the last 17 minutes -- rallying Juventus to a 3-2 victory over Fiorentina in the 12th round of the Italian championship.
Juve's defense shut down Argentine striker Gabriel Batistuta on Sunday and ended his Italian record 12-game scoring streak.
AC Parma remained atop the standings with a 4-0 victory over Brescia, getting two goals from Italian international midfielder Gianfranco Zola. Parma's victory improved it to 8-3-1 and kept it one point ahead of Juventus (8-2-1).
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