EPL: Wayne Rooney Nets 2 As Manchester United Breeze Past Aston Villa 3-1

Manchester United were silent watchers in the January transfer window when their rivals splashed the cash and a bit more to obtain the signatures of world-class strikers. Darren Bent, Andy Carroll, Luis Suarez and Fernando Torres were traded for a little under £132million.

And funnily, the only piece of business from United's end was the procurement of a young Danish keeper, Anders Lindegaard, to counter the foursome for a fraction of that sum.

Sir Alex Ferguson could argue that he's already got the services of three world-class strikers himself which include the current top-scorer in the league, a Mexican starlet who almost always scores off the bench, and of course, last season's second-highest top-scorer in the league.

Wayne Rooney was on a path of resurgence coming into the game, after a torrid and horrid 2010. The England hitman had scored just three goals since last March, two of which were from the penalty spot.

However, since his dramatic U-turn regarding his United career, Rooney had been at the heart of almost every goal his club scored with powerhouse performances which involved some fantastic assists. It was just that his name wasn't on the scoresheet.

Rooney was to change that on Tuesday night with Fabio Capello watching and it took him only 49 seconds to do it. 

Edwin van der Sar showed exactly why he will be missed from next season as his free-kick from the edge of his own box traveled a good 70 yards and found Rooney lurking along the Villa defense line. Rooney displayed some exquisite one-touch control before thundering an unstoppable volley past Brad Friedel.

The goal was helped by some disastrous defending on behalf of Aston Villa, who had just come from a morale-boosting victory over Manchester City last weekend, capping a five-match unbeaten run. A goal conceded in the first minute at Old Trafford wouldn't have helped that morale much!

It was all United after that in the first half, except for a brief spell of possession for Villa within the first 20 minutes which did not impose any threat on van der Sar.

The four-pronged attack of Rooney, Berbatov, Nani and Giggs kept knocking on the door, and were only to be denied by some fantastic shot-stopping from Friedel, who became Villa's oldest ever player on the day.

Evra and Giggs were making life miserable for Ciaran Clark on the left flank. The pair were linking up well and keeping Friedel on his toes.

On the other side of the pitch, Nani was at his liveliest best, making his typical run-ins from the right and testing Friedel with a few blistering strikes. The Portuguese winger also had a strong penalty claim turned down after Richard Dunne showed no attempt to play the ball and barged down the former in the box.

Nani's efforts finally paid dividends in stoppage time of the first half. The winger found Rooney in the box with a curling defense-splitter of a cross which only had to be tapped in by the Englishman. It was Rooney's first brace in 11 months, and Nani's 12th assist of the season. 

Villa needed to show some character in the second half, and that's exactly what they did. They even had a penalty claim turned down, but still showed a lot of composure and inspiration and were finally rewarded in the 58th minute when Darren Bent latched on to Stewart Downing's low, early cross. It was Bent's second goal in three games since arriving from Sunderland for a whopping £24million.

A reversal of the reverse fixture back in November, when United came back from 2-0 down at Villa Park to snatch a point, was on the cards. But it took five minutes and one of the most rarefied goals to thwart that scenario.

Nemanja Vidic exchanged a couple of tight passes with Rooney in a crowded box before sending a magnificent curler into the back of the net. The United captain, known mostly for his stinging headers, had scored off his foot!

Stewart Downing and Ashley Young kept the visitor's faint hopes of a point alive in the final third, with the latter rattling the bar. At the other end, Rooney was denied a hat-trick by some timely interception from Dunne.

Dimitar Berbatov, who had had a poor game, was made to accept it just wasn't his night when he blasted over from six yards.

Brad Friedel kept the score respectable after blocking Rooney's ferocious strike two minutes from normal time. It was the 39-year-old's finest out of half-a-dozen outstanding saves that kept Villa in the match.

Gerard Houllier's men were a mere shadow of the team that had played so well to creep out of the relegation zone in the recent past. But then again, they were up against a Manchester United side that seems so unstoppable at the moment.

With the victory, the Red Devils equaled the 29-match unbeaten record set by their treble-winning predecessors, and will hope that the floodgates which had prohibited Wayne Rooney's goal-scoring flow have finally and permanently been opened.