Wayne Rooney hopes “incredible talent” Marcus Rashford can help bring titles back to Manchester United and put himself at the same level as the likes of Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland.
The 20-time league champions have now not won a Premier League crown for a decade, with neighbours Manchester City establishing themselves as the dominant force during that period.
United have endured a topsy-turvy time since Rooney helped Sir Alex Ferguson’s side lift the 2012-13 title but things are looking up under Erik ten Hag.
Mason Mount has joined from Chelsea and Inter Milan goalkeeper Andre Onana is set to follow him to Old Trafford as the Dutchman looks to build on last season’s Carabao Cup triumph and third-place finish.
United have been further boosted on Tuesday by tying down homegrown star Rashford, who has signed a new five-year deal after breaking the 30-goal barrier for the first time last season.
“I think Ten Hag has done really well since he came in last season,” Rooney, the club’s all-time top scorer, said.
“You can see he’s trying to create a squad and a mentality with the signings he made last season and also again what they’re trying to do this year.
“I think Marcus Rashford is an incredible talent. I am delighted he signed a new deal. I think the next five years for him is going to be real important in his legacy, if you like.
“Because he can score a lot of goals but if he really wants to go to that level which Mbappe and Haaland are at, I think he has to be the man to get Manchester United back to winning trophies and league titles. I hope he can do that.”
City – basking in the afterglow of their treble triumph – are some hurdle to overcome, with up-and-coming manager Rooney full of praise for Pep Guardiola.
“I think Manchester City have certainly raised everything,” the DC United boss said. “You look at Liverpool for a couple of seasons were really challenging them.
“They’ve set a challenge for Manchester United, for Arsenal, for Chelsea, for Liverpool and all the teams, really.
“Guardiola has been, for me, one of the best things to happen to English football – not just in terms of the league but actually the England national team too.
“Some of the coaching he’s given the young English players, before with (Raheem) Sterling, John Stones, Kyle Walker, has really helped them develop as players.
“I know they were senior players in the England set-up, to pass that knowledge onto some of the other players well.
“Yeah, there’s a challenge there. I think it goes in cycles – we’ve seen it throughout the years with Manchester United, Arsenal having dominance, Chelsea having dominance.
“Unfortunately it’s Manchester City’s time of dominance but I’m sure the teams that are challenging are going to be coming back over the next few years, that’s for sure.”
Rooney was speaking ahead of managing the Major League Soccer All-Stars against Arsenal, whose manager Mikel Arteta is another coach he admires.
“I think he’s done incredible, really, to go in at Arsenal and he won the FA Cup in the first season and really pushed Manchester City last season,” the England great said.
“Still as a young coach, it’s great to see. Everyone coaches in their own ways, styles and identities.
“He’s been fantastic and I’m sure working with Guardiola helped him massively as well.
“That’s where you want to get to as a young coach, into the top teams obviously, being English, in the Premier League.
“I’m going through the steps to try and do that where Arteta has already been through those steps and had probably the best training he could have working alongside Guardiola.”
Rooney and Arteta shared a warm embrace between the press conferences in Washington DC, where new boy Declan Rice could make his first Arsenal appearance since joining for £105million from West Ham.
“I think he’s a huge signing for Arsenal,” Rooney said. “He’s a fantastic player with a great mentality, young.
“Arsenal have got a player at the top of his game but I think he’ll bring a great character into the dressing room.
“He’s a captain, he could be captain of Arsenal. I think he’s a player who Arsenal needed and they’ve certainly got a top player.”
Arsenal qualifying for Champions League quarter-finals feel surreal, says Slegers
Renee Slegers says it feels "surreal" that Arsenal have secured their place in the Champions League quarter-finals with two games to spare.
The Gunners will finish at least second in Group C after Lina Hurtig's late strike secured a 1-0 win over Juventus on Thursday.
What looked to be a frustrating encounter was turned around by Slegers' substitutions, and after missing a glorious chance, Hurtig was eventually the difference at the Emirates.
Arsenal created 3.69 expected goals (xG) from their nine shots, getting three on target, compared to just 0.5 for Juventus, who tested Daphne van Domselaar the same amount of times.
Slegers was impressed by her side's resilience as they pushed to come away with all three points.
"It's surreal to be honest," Slegers said post-match. "I never felt we would get into this situation. We have done really well.
"I was part of Jonas [Eidevall's] staff and there was so much that was built during his time. I don't want to separate that. There is so much we are still building on. It's surreal in so many ways but we are very happy.
"I'm just happy for the team to win. Obviously, we have amazing depth in the squad, and we know anyone can do it for us - whether it's starting players or finishing players.
"It's the visualisation of how much everyone contributes in the team. I think that's what it means for us."
Slegers took over as interim manager following Jonas Eidevall's departure last month and has gone unbeaten in her first seven games, winning six and drawing one.
They have won each of their last five in all competitions, and have not conceded a goal in their previous four matches.
"It was just a very impressive block of the team," Slegers said. "We conceded only one goal during this whole block, so defensively very solid.
"The players have been stepping up big time, they've been owning this; we tried to relay it back to them all the time, so giving them the ownership.
"I'm just very happy with how the block has been, different challenges along the way, so all games have asked something different from us. We've responded to that really well, sticking to our identity but also playing the game that's ahead of us."
Gravenberch ready to show off Liverpool form ‘to the world’, says Gakpo
Liverpool’s Cody Gakpo expressed his pride in seeing compatriot Ryan Gravenberch show off his qualities ‘to the whole world’ after a fine start to the Premier League season.
Though the Netherlands pair did not become teammates at Liverpool until late summer of 2023, Gakpo knew well Gravenberch’s talents from their respective Eredivisie spells with PSV Eindhoven and Ajax.
Now in his second season at Anfield, Gravenberch has drawn widespread plaudits for his form in a new deeper-lying midfield role under new head coach Arne Slot, having largely been used as a substitute under Jurgen Klopp.
Gravenberch is the only midfielder in Europe's big-five leagues to both make 30+ tackles (30) and 30+ interceptions (33) in all competitions this season, and Gakpo insisted that his Netherlands team-mate can continue to go from strength to strength, starting against Southampton this Sunday.
“We [the Dutchmen at Liverpool] knew Ryan already from the Eredivisie when he played at Ajax, and I think everybody knew already that he is this good,” Gakpo recently told Men in Blazers.
“After that, he made a move to Bayern Munich, and maybe he didn’t play that much over there, but still everybody in Holland knew how good he could be when he was playing.
“And I think maybe the manager [Slot] also knew this. At the beginning of the season, he put him in a slightly different position, but he gave him the confidence to play there.
“Ryan showed his quality in that position, grabbed his chance as well and turned out to be a good match. He is playing outstandingly for us this season.
“I’m very happy that we can see Ryan, as we Dutchmen already knew, but now he can show it to the whole world. I’m very proud of him.”
Southampton, meanwhile, welcome the Reds to St. Mary’s on the back of a 2-0 defeat to Wolves ahead of the international break, leaving them bottom of the table after 11 games of the season.
The Saints are the lowest scorers in the Premier League this season (seven), while only Crystal Palace (5.1%) have a lower shot conversion rate than Russell Martin’s side (6.2%). Just 30.1% of Southampton’s shots have been on target this term (34/113), a league-low ratio.
However, the Southampton head coach is relishing the opportunity of facing Liverpool, with his players performing well against the likes of Arsenal and Manchester City already this term.
"I'm really excited about Sunday. We're playing the best team in the country at the moment, on their current form and what they have been doing with their manager, built on an incredible foundation from the previous manager, so I'm really looking forward to it,” Martin said.
"I think we showed the guys the Premier League table last season and how much it changed by the end and by the end of December. But it's honestly such an exciting month.
"People talk about the difficulty of the game and every competition we face in the next four or five games, but it's what we all worked so hard for. We should be excited about the challenge.
“I think teams have shown in the last few weeks that you can pick up big results against big teams, good opposition, and we are going to have to. Our level of performance against teams at the top end of the table has been good on the whole."
PLAYERS TO WATCH
Southampton – Mateus Fernandes
Fernandes has become a mainstay in the Southampton team, starting the last eight Premier League games in a row, and has been one of Martin’s standout performers in a lacklustre start to the campaign.
In the Saints’ 2-0 defeat to Wolves last time out, the Portuguese contributed a team-high expected goals (xG) tally of 0.22 from his three shots, while only Yukinari Sugawara (10) and Flynn Downes (12) have created more chances in the top-flight than Fernandes (eight) this season.
Liverpool – Mohamed Salah
Salah has both scored and assisted in the same match 35 times in the Premier League (including four already this term), just one shy of Wayne Rooney’s record of 36 games with both a goal and an assist in the competition. The Egyptian has been directly involved in 11 goals (seven goals, four assists) in 11 Premier League appearances against Southampton.
He has also been directly involved in 67% of Liverpool’s Premier League goals this season (14/21 – eight goals, six assists), the highest ratio by a player for any side in the division in 2024-25. Indeed, only Matt Le Tissier for Southampton in 1993-94 (69% - 34/49) has scored or assisted a higher proportion of a side’s goals in a single season in the competition.
MATCH PREDICTION: LIVERPOOL WIN
Liverpool have won nine of their 11 Premier League games under new head coach Slot (D1 L1). A win over Southampton will see the Dutchman become the joint-fastest manager to reach 10 wins from the start of a Premier League career (12 games), alongside Guus Hiddink in May 2009 and Carlo Ancelotti in November 2009 (both with Chelsea).
The Reds’ last Premier League game against the Saints was a 4-4 away draw in May 2023 – they conceded as many goals in that game as they had in their previous six visits to St Mary’s combined.
Southampton have won just one of their last 14 Premier League games against Liverpool (D3 L10), a 1-0 home victory in January 2021.
This will also be the first Premier League match between the side starting the day bottom of the table and the side starting the day top since April 2023, and Southampton’s 3-3 draw away to Arsenal. The league leaders are unbeaten in 14 such matches (W12 D2) since Wolves won 2-1 against Manchester United in February 2011.
However, Southampton have only lost one of their last eight Premier League home games against sides starting the day at the summit (W2 D5) and are unbeaten in their last four (W2 D2 – including a 1-0 win over Liverpool in January 2021) since a 0-1 defeat to Man City in May 2018.
But Martin’s side have lost nine of their 11 Premier League games this season (W1 D1). Only seven sides in English top-flight history have reached 10 defeats in 12 or fewer matches from the start of a campaign, with all seven going on to be relegated.
OPTA WIN PROBABILITY
Southampton – 9.7%
Draw – 12.6%
Liverpool – 77.7%
Taylor proud of 'gritty' Man City display in Hammarby victory
Gareth Taylor was pleased with how his Manchester City players handled the atmosphere against Hammarby to secure their passage into the Champions League quarter-finals.
Khadija Shaw opened the scoring in the 31st minute before Ellen Wangerheim restored parity shortly after the interval with a finish from close range.
But Shaw continued her fine start to the campaign, scoring the winner to become City's all-time top scorer in the competition, surpassing Georgia Stanway and Janine Beckie (both six).
The result saw City make it to the last eight of the competition for the first time since 2021, though the encounter was far from comfortable at the Tele2 Arena on Thursday.
Hammarby ended the contest with an expected goals (xG) total of 2.15 compared to the visitors' 1.07, despite both sides having 14 shots throughout the match.
However, City maintained their unbeaten record against Swedish sides in the competitor (W6), and Taylor was proud of his side's "gritty" display in Stockholm.
“I’m really pleased. It was about qualification for us tonight," Taylor said.
"There were a couple of ways we could do it. Obviously, we knew a point was enough, but I don’t think the players were thinking that way.
“It was a really gritty performance on a really difficult on this pitch. It probably doesn’t look like that for the viewers at home watching it.
"But it was a really lively surface and we worked so hard.
“I felt there were some areas we could control the play better. I have to give credit to Hammarby, they were really aggressive.
"The referee was on our side a little bit in the first half and maybe not in the second.
“I’m really pleased and proud of the players, they really dug in tonight. You come away from a hostile environment with a win.”
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