'Man United can win Premier League title’, insists Rooney

Manchester United captain Wayne Rooney claims his side have the belief to catch Chelsea and Manchester City and claim the club’s 21st top flight title this season.

The Red Devils consolidating their position in the Premier League top three with a 3-0 victory over arch rivals Liverpool on Sunday, stretching their winning streak to six games.

Despite struggling in the opening stages of the season, manager Louis van Gaal has overseen a drastic change in fortunes, with the side now just eight points shy of leaders Chelsea, who are three points ahead of second-place Man City.

So far this season Chelsea have looked superior to United, but that does not faze Rooney.

The striker was part of the team that won the league six seasons ago despite trailing Liverpool by eight points in January and he also remembers United's last triumph in 2013, when they won the title by 11 points despite rarely blowing sides away.

"I think we have to believe we can win the title," Rooney said.

"We are eight points behind and coming into a busy period.

"If we can win our games and the others have one bad result then there is nothing there.

"We have to keep winning our games and hopefully get back to the top and you never know.

"We won the league two years ago and we weren't great in a lot of those games but we got the results.

"We have shown a great resilience this season. Some of the games haven't gone the way we would like but we are winning them and that is a great quality to have.

"We have been here before but we have a lot of new players and this is where the experience of myself, Michael Carrick and Darren Fletcher can rub off on the other players."

Rooney points to several factors behind United's resurgence, but points to the form of David de Gea as the most significant following the United goalkeeper's latest top-class display, where he denied Reds forwards Raheem Sterling and Balotelli with a string of superb saves.

"In my eyes he is the best keeper in the world," Rooney said without hesitation.

"Sometimes in training you hit a shot and turn away thinking it has gone in and he just manages to get there.

"He came through a tough patch early on in his career here and he is starting to prove what a top keeper he is.

"I hope he wins some of the top personal awards. He has had a really good season."