Wayne Rooney helps United to end nine winless streak

Louis van Gaal accused Swansea of putting ten behind the ball and wasting time in Manchester United’s win over Alan Curtis’ side at Old Trafford.

Manchester United are now just two points off a top four spot, with Tottenham Hotspur currently above them, and they are nine points behind the top of the table Arsenal. “I hope this is a fantastic starting point for us in the New Year and we can continue against Sheffield United”.

The England captain flicked in a deft finish for his first United goal in two months, which put him second outright in the all-time scoring lists at United (238) and in the league (188).

“Now we are playing much more matches but still it is an achievement”, said van Gaal as the Dutch tactician reflected on Rooney’s place in the club’s history. He wants to play, but I can imagine that he can’t always play.

“It is unbelievable”, United manager Louis van Gaal said, “and that at the age of 30”.

Van Gaal could name an unchanged team from the Chelsea clash, with Marcos Rojo, Luke Shaw and Jesse Lingard still on the sidelines.

“In the second half, when they changed the shape, we changed the shape also and Ashley Young played as the right full-back”.

The 20-year-old emphatically headed home an Ashley Young cross two minutes into the second half to break the deadlock and net his eighth goal of the season.

Van Gaal, however, hailed the “fantastic” reaction of the United supporters.

United takes on Swansea City at home tomorrow morning, a team van Gaal has not beaten in three games since taking over.

Outside the relegation zone, only West Brom, Swansea and Stoke have scored fewer goals than United this season.

Although the play of Rooney and his first goal in quite some time will steal most of the headlines, it was the overall performance of Anthony Martial that was the true difference in the match.

“I don’t believe too much in competition”. Youngster Anthony Martial has been promising but he has just scored four goals in the EPL. De Gea made a brilliant save from William’s shot while Swansea keeper Fabianski came very close to scoring in the dying minutes but thankfully, United finally had the win that was eluding them for so long to start 2016 on a positive note. Only it shall raise the confidence and lower the pressure because the players had a lot of pressure to do it in 90 minutes against an opponent that is not so easy.