Wayne Rooney: We’re coming for you

Alam Khan - Reporter 07:35 27/12/2014
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  • Coming back: Manchester United captain Wayne Rooney (R) fires title warning.

    Wayne Rooney says Manchester United are ready to hunt down leaders Chelsea in the Premier League title race.

    The Old Trafford skipper led their 3-1 win over Newcastle with a brace from his deeper midfield role.

    United are in third place, 10 points behind Chelsea, but that has not diminished their ambition after a seventh win in eight games.

    Rooney believes the festive period could be crucial. “There is still a long way to go, we know that,” he said.

    “We’ve chased leads down before and we’ve lost leads ourselves before, and by a big number of points, so anything can still happen, especially in the next week or two.

    “There’s a lot of games, and if we can come out of these games with the right results then we’ll be in a good position.”

    Rooney also set up Robin van Persie for the third goal and boss Louis van Gaal said: “He has the lung capacity to run for 90 minutes as a midfielder. I can also use him as a striker, but at the moment he is more important to the team as a midfielder. He was against Aston Villa, a little bit too defensive. I said to him to do more attacking and he scores two goals and gives an assist, so how can you demand more as a manager?”

    United, who have Angel Di Maria sidelined now with a pelvic injury, next visit Spurs tomorrow, but van Gaal was not happy as he added: “We have to play within 48 hours. In UEFA and FIFA it is forbidden to play within 48 hours, but in Eng­land it is different. But I can’t pre­pare my team like I would like to prepare them.”

    The Dutchman, however, was in a better mood when discussing Unit­ed’s overall performance: “We have dominated the game for 90 min­utes and that’s the most important thing. I’m very pleased.”

    Newcastle slipped to a fourth successive defeat and boss Alan Pardew bemoaned the fact his side did not get an early penalty when Juan Mata clipped the legs of Yoan Gouffran.

    “The referee has got a big call wrong in my opinion,” he said. “You have to say that was clumsy and was a penalty. I was disappointed in that, but the difference between the two sides was United’s cutting edge.

    “We need to buy another striker in the transfer window. We don’t score enough goals and it’s as sim­ple as that. We need to change this if we want to make more of an impact in the Premier League.”

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