Louis van Gaal: Man Utd win can be ‘fantastic’ start to 2016

United ended an eight-game winless run courtesy of strikes from Anthony Martial and Wayne Rooney either side of a goal from Gylfi Sigurdsson at Old Trafford.

The move was started by Anthony Martial, who really has turned out to be an wonderful find, as he beat Federico Ferandez on the left and crossed for Rooney who put it in the goal with an audacious flick that serves as a reminder of his world class talent.

United had control for the majority of the first time but as has been the story in the League this season for van Gaal’s side, they couldn’t create many clear cut chances to make their dominance count.

“Still we are the dominating team, against Chelsea and today against Swansea”.

But, despite their limitations, the current players appear to be giving everything to lift them out of their current slump and support under-pressure manager Louis van Gaal. The players want to press. In a season of six 0-0 draws on their own turf, it has been one of mundane, drab reality.

With an audacious backheel flick that rolled back the years, he scored the winning goal to hand the Reds Devils a 2-1 victory over Swansea at Old Trafford.

“Amazing is that you can perform the game plan like we have done in the first half and the second half in a risky style under this pressure”.

Perhaps it’s in the attacking midfield area where United need freshening up most, with the likes of Juan Mata and Ander Herrera having struggled to have a significant impact on the 2015-16 campaign and, as revealed by Goal, a deal for Felipe Anderson is very much in the offing.

He said: “In the first half we played with three defenders, a risky shape, a risky system”. Ghostbusters might be overstating the case, but United did look more like a reincarnation of their previous selves.

Alex Tettey’s 76th-minute goal gave Norwich a 1-0 victory over Southampton, who suffered their seventh defeat in nine games after Victor Wanyama had been sent off for two bookings with the game goalless.

Swansea City will have been reasonably happy to go back into the dressing room with the scores unchanged, but they knew they could play a whole lot better. If we keep doing that, we’ll win games.

“It was important to get the win, however we did it. It was nice to get the two goals”.

Young said: “I was watching it on TV by then and there were a few hearts in mouths – you don’t expect the goalkeeper to be up there but it was a good header and thankfully for us it went past the post”.