Manchester United look like old selves again as normal service resumes While Jones and the much maligned Tom Cleverley looked ­purposeful in the centre of midfield, there was even another goal - and a cracker too, curled from the edge of the West Ham area - from Ashley Young. Things really are on the up. But the fountainhead of all the ­evident improvement was Wayne Rooney. After a summer of ­discontent, the player has been on superb form recently, the one constant as United have stuttered and stalled. Against Sam Allardyce's team he was ­outstanding. Full of invention, he set up both Young and Danny Welbeck for goals with perfectly weighted passes. So good was his performance, he wasn't so much running the game as conducting it. Do you know what I see more than anything in Wayne? I see leadership. I see somebody who wants to take responsibility for the team. I see somebody who cares for how he plays and how the team plays. He is getting to an age now where he realises he is not a boy anymore. He is one of the senior men in the team. He is actually on the verge of being one of the great legends at this club. It is Rooney's shining example, Moyes suggested, that had been central to United's recovery as it had been taken up by the other players. I think he is saying I have got to take responsibility for results and for performances and make sure the players are doing it on the pitch. The players are responding. In the dressing room now Wayne is one of those who is beginning to call the shots. Rightly so: in this company, Rooney is a senior presence. Patrice Evra apart, he was the oldest head among the callow representatives of what looked very much like the next team to emerge from Old Trafford. And perhaps in his new role as elder statesman, he might have a word with Adnan Januzaj, whose brilliance threatens to be compromised by a propensity to take flight in the attempt to gain advantage. In addition to a beautifully taken goal here, when he ghosted past James Collins as if he were a training ground bollard, the teenaged flier was also booked for a dive of such fraudulence even Young might have baulked at trying it on. If Rooney can persuade him to cut that from his game, then this will be some player. One who, according to Moyes, has an unexpected future. "I think Januzaj has said he has picked Scotland," the manager joked when asked whether the youngster had yet decided to commit himself internationally. Two weeks ago, the idea of finishing his press duties to the sound of laughter was remote. But on ­Saturday, as Moyes bounced away grinning, positivity abounded. And perhaps the biggest source of optimism for the manager lies in the fixture list. United have a comparatively easy schedule over the holiday period - with trips to Hull City and Norwich before a home match with Spurs - while their Champions League rivals are likely to shed points with tougher matchups. As others share their spoils, Moyes's team have the festive opportunity to seal their recovery by overtaking their way back into contention. Do that, and in the new year the chuckling may become routine.