Rooney eyes 100th career goal against Everton
Reuters - Wednesday 22 October 2008, 16:38
MANCHESTER - Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney can score the 100th goal of his club career at his former side Everton on Saturday.
Rooney, who turns 23 on Friday, is enjoying a rich vein of form having found the net in seven successive games for United and England.
"I am doing well at the minute and hopefully that continues," Rooney told reporters after scoring his ninth goal in seven games in Tuesday night's 3-0 Champions League win over Celtic.
"I am really enjoying my football. I am enjoying the way the team is playing.
"It is always nice for any player to score 100 goals. If I can do that back at Everton, where I started, it would be really pleasing. If I do score at Everton, whether it was my first or my 100th, it would be really sweet."
Rooney's goal rush followed a barren start to the season when he failed to score in his first six games for United.
It was as a substitute that the floodgates opened when he came off the bench to score against Bolton Wanderers at the end of September.
"I haven't got a clue what has changed. I am just scoring goals," he said.
"I think I am starting to play a lot higher up the pitch. Maybe I am attacking defenders a bit more than I was, which I am really pleased with.
"Obviously, when you score goals you get more confident and try different things. I am starting to run at defenders a bit more and commit them a bit more.
"I would hope to get into the twenties. The season before last I got 23. I went down to 18 last year. I would be really disappointed if I did not top that this season."
Rooney's goal spree and Dimitar Berbatov's integration into the side have ignited United's season with the defending Premier League champions recovering from a sluggish start to win their last three league games and move up to fifth in the table.
They are now six points behind pacesetters Chelsea and Liverpool, who clash at Stamford Bridge on Sunday.
"We knew it would be a difficult start to the season. Thankfully we are not too far away from Chelsea and Liverpool if we win our game in hand," said Rooney.
"If we can stay there and maybe creep up on them this weekend when they play each other and stay around the top four for Christmas, hopefully we can go on from there."
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