MANCHESTER: Manchester United striker Marcus Rashford’s superb run of form continued as he netted a goal in each half of his side’s 3-0 Premier League win over Leicester City on Sunday to extend his scoring streak to five games.

It was exactly what his side needed as they weathered an early storm from the visitors, with keeper David De Gea pulling off a superb save to deny Harvey Barnes in the eighth minute and topping that with an even better effort to keep out a Kelechi Iheanacho header.

Leicester were left to rue those near misses when Rashford latched onto a pass down the right from Bruno Fernandes and rifled the ball across keeper Danny Ward and into the net after 25 minutes at Old Trafford.

United midfielder Marcel Sabitzer was lucky to remain on the pitch after a dangerous challenge left Leicester’s Wout Faes needing treatment, with the Austrian, who is on loan from Bayern Munich, escaping punishment altogether.

United were a different side after the break, Lisandro Martinez hitting the crossbar in the 49th minute with a header and Rashford going close after another run and shot as Leicester lost their composure.

England international Rashford bagged his second in the 56th minute, cutting in from the left and tearing into the box before guiding the ball home to register his 14th league goal of the season and 25th in all competitions.

Substitute Jadon Sancho added a brilliant third five minutes later when Martinez won the ball in midfield to allow Rashford to feed Sancho, who played a quick exchange of passes with Fernandes before drilling home.

Leicester rang the changes in an effort to get back into the game but United continued to have the better chances, with Sancho and Wout Weghorst spurning good opportunities to add a fourth.

United moved on to 49 points, three behind second-placed Manchester City after 24 games and five adrift of leaders Arsenal, who have played a game less. Fourth-placed Newcastle United trail Manchester United by eight points.

“We’re close, but both teams in front of us are good teams and playing good football. We have to just focus on ourselves, do as well as we can and keep picking up points,” Rashford told Sky Sports.

With a second-leg Europa League game against Barcelona and a League Cup final against Newcastle United coming up, United fans will be hoping Rashford’s prolific run continues.

“It’s still early in the season, we’re fighting for a lot of different things,” Rashford said.

“We have another big game in the week (against Barcelona) to hopefully go through to the next round of the Europa League and then a massive game for us (in the cup final),” he added.

LIVERPOOL END NEWCASTLE’S UNBEATEN RUN

On Saturday, Liverpool ended Newcastle United’s 17-match unbeaten run in the Premier League through early goals by Darwin Nunez and Cody Gakpo that gave them a 2-0 win at St James’ Park.

Juergen Klopp’s side caught Newcastle cold with a scintillating start and the stunned hosts were reduced to 10 men in the 22nd minute when goalkeeper Nick Pope was red-carded.

Fourth-placed Newcastle’s only previous defeat in the league came against Liverpool at the end of August and they were up against it again when Nunez controlled a long pass by Trent Alexander Arnold to smash home in the 10th minute.

Gakpo doubled Liverpool’s lead seven minutes later when he

slotted in from a clever pass by Mohamed Salah for his second goal of the week after opening his account against Everton.Newcastle responded well and were denied by a mixture of the woodwork and Alisson, but the damage was already done.

Liverpool’s second successive league win after a run of four games without one moved them up to eighth in the table with 35 points, six points behind Newcastle with a game in hand.

Newcastle’s ambitions are coming under threat after only one win and five draws in their last seven league games.

To add to Newcastle’s woes they will be without first-choice keeper Pope for next week’s League Cup final against United while Martin Dubravka, who came on to replace Pope, is not available for the Wembley clash as he is cup-tied.

Published in Dawn, February 20th, 2023