Ashley Young has backed Marcus Rashford to become one of the best players in the world after the England striker continued his rich vein of form to lead Manchester United to a seventh straight win under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer on Saturday.
A 2-1 victory over Brighton & Hove Albion at Old Trafford ensured United have now claimed a maximum 18 points since Solskjaer arrived as interim manager, which has revived the club's hopes of claiming a top four place and with it entry into next season's Uefa Champions League.
Paul Pogba opened the scoring after winning and then converting a penalty in the 27th minute for his fifth goal in his past six league games. Rashford then doubled United's lead with a superb finish from a tight angle three minutes before the interval.
_____________
Read more:
Premier League predictions: Chelsea too good for Arsenal as Liverpool win
Arsenal v Chelsea: Risk of playing Ozil and Morata outweighing reward
Jose Mourinho rails against the world in outspoken return as a TV pundit
_____________
Pascal Gross halved the deficit in the 72nd minute, but United managed to navigate their way to victory, and it was Rashford who was once again at the heart of the win thanks to his fifth goal in as many league games.
"Marcus Rashford is an unbelievable talent," United full-back Young said. "I have said it since he was in the youth team. He has the world ahead of him and can be one of the best in the world. I think he was off balance and still found the net.
"We are delighted to get seven wins under Ole. When you are full of confidence you think you are going to win every game."
Newcastle United manager Rafa Benitez has said he was pleased with his players' commitment levels after a hard fought 3-0 win over fellow strugglers Cardiff City.
Fabian Schar scored the first two goals for Newcastle before Ayoze Perez added some shine to the result in injury-time. Newcastle's victory came just four days after they were forced into extra time in their FA Cup fourth round win at Blackburn Rovers, and sees them climb out of the bottom three to be replaced by Cardiff.
"It was good. We won the other day and scored four in the FA Cup, coming back here after three days, we went to extra time and you could see the players were exhausted at the end," Benitez told the BBC.
"We did good. We scored three goals so everyone has to be happy. The main thing is the commitment of the players and then it was about trying to manage the game against a tough team, a physical team.
"I said before we would still have to win a lot of games to stay up."
Southampton's revival since the appointment of manager Ralph Hasenhuttl continued apace with a 2-1 win over Everton at St Mary's.
James Ward-Prowse broke the deadlock five minutes into the second half, and an own goal by Lucas Digne doubled the hosts' advantage. Gylfi Sigurdsson pulled one back for Everton in injury-time.
Bournemouth picked up a much-needed win over West Ham United at the Vitality Stadium, Callum Wilson and Josh King delivering the goals for a 2-0 win for just their third league win in the past 13 matches.
Watford and Burnley played out a goalless draw at Vicarage Road.
