Goal-hungry Rooney sinks Fulham with another brace

Manchester United 3 Fulham 0. Wayne Rooney's devastating form continued with yet another brace of goals as Manchester United went back to the top of the Premier League with a 3-0 win over Fulham at Old Trafford.

The England striker's tally for the season is now 32 and he has managed 24 in his last 23 games. A few weeks ago it seemed laughable to suggest he could challenge Cristiano Ronaldo's 42 goals in a season or even Denis Law's all-time record of 46 - but who would bet against him now? United have as many as 13 games left this season and Rooney is scoring at a rate of more than one a game.

Rooney had to wait until the second half before he opened his account for the afternoon - but his strike came within a minute of the restart to give United the lead after a tight opening period. Rooney underlined his ability by taking part in the build up to the goal - sweeping the ball out to Nani on the wing and powering into the box to fire home the winger's low cross.

Fulham refused to roll over having gone behind, perhaps buoyed by memories of their 3-0 victory over the same opponents at Craven Cottage earlier in the season. However, that was a very different affair and came at the height of United's injury crisis.

That day Sir Alex Ferguson fielded a central defensive pairing of Michael Carrick and Darren Fletcher. At Old Trafford he had the luxury of being able to pick his first choice centre backs for once. Nemanja Vidic and Rio Ferdinand gave Bobby Zamora and the Fulham attackers far less time and space that they had been afforded previously.

That did not stop Fulham pressing for an equaliser, and Vidic produced a wonderful tackle in the box to deny Zamora.

Eventually, though, United made the game safe in the 84th minute. Once again it was Rooney who found the net, sliding the ball home after a wonderful run and pull-back from Dimitar Berbatov.

That was not the end of Rooney's contribution. In the final minute he fired a long crossfield ball that Steven Gerrard or David Beckham would have been proud of to Park Ji-Sung and the Korean's cross was headed in by Berbatov.

Afterwards Rooney brushed off talk of goalscoring records, and rejected comparisons with his preening, permatanned, former team-mate turned Real Madrid Galactico, Cristiano Ronaldo.

"What Cristiano achieved was unbelievable. But I'm a different person and I wouldn't compare myself to him," said the down to earth Liverpudlian. ·