Manchester United as of late, have failed to produce the level of Football that has earned them so many trophies. Sunday's Premier league clash with Liverpool, at Anfield, was no exception. They may have come away with all three points but once again United were scrappy at best, and Rooney's goal was the only shot on target for the red devils.
It is a game that would peak any football fans attention, that of Liverpool versus Manchester United, the two giants in the Premier league, unfortunately this game would fail to wet the fans appetitesfor the second half of the season.
The first half of the game, neither side showed much willing to score, or indeed too much in the way of footballing skill, it would take the second half to see things come to life, if only just a simmer rather than a boil for these clubs. 43,865 fans didn't quite get what they paid for.
De Gea would keep United in the game however with two superb saves from Jordan Henderson and Emre Can. Liverpool may have had more of the possession and shots on target, (4 to Manchester's 1) but they failed to capitalise on any of them.
78 minutes would see the only goal of the game. Juan Mata would cross the ball and find the head of Marouane Fellaini, he would find the cross bar only, the ball would rebound out to Wayne Rooney, who would net United's 100th goal against Liverpool.
Wayne Rooney has now scored in the past four games for Manchester, a feat he has not achieved since March 2012.
With that goal he overtakes Thierry Henry's record of top goal scorer for one single club, that being 175 for Arsenal, with Rooney now on 176. Rooney has not scored at Anfield in 11 years, so its a welcome goal for him.
It also means that Manchester have beaten Liverpool, both home and away in the past two seasons. Louis Van Gaal has beaten Liverpool 5 times since he became Manchester manager.
Liverpool tried to claw something back late on, as they would replace Kolo Toure with in form Benteke, but even the wonder striker himself couldn't salvage any points for the team.
After Tuesday's 3-3 draw with Newcastle this sees Manchester start the year with an unbeaten record, but with only one shot all game being on target they really need to do better, and its a performance that no fan will want to see a repeat of. However it does go to show that all you need is one chance when Wayne Rooney is in front of goal. With the win it sees Manchester go to fifth in the league, with Liverpool in 9th.
Manchester United's next game is on Saturday against Southampton. Hopefully they can pull a better performance out of the bag, if they have any hopes of winning the title.