Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney refused to get carried away with his team's good form after they continued their rise up the Barclays Premier League table with a 3-1 win over Newcastle.

Rooney scored two goals and set up another for Robin van Persie as United stretched their unbeaten league run to seven matches, with Louis van Gaal’s men lying third in the standings.

Papiss Cisse scored a late consolation for Newcastle from the penalty spot, but the match belonged to the hosts — although Rooney was quick to warn against complacency as whispers abound of a possible title challenge.

He told BT Sport: “We’re happy to win the game. It’s a busy period for us over Christmas and we were able to start that out with a win.

“We were disappointed at the end to concede the goal but overall we’ve got to be pleased with the three points.

“There’s a long way to go, we know that. We’ve chased leads down before but we’ve lost leads as well, and a big number of points before, so anything can happen especially over the next week or two with all the games.

“If we can come out of these games the right side with the right result, we’ll be in a good position.”

Van Gaal was also satisfied with his team’s performance and believes they are finally beginning to show signs of potential.

“I was very pleased because we dominated for 90 minutes,” said the Dutchman.

“In the second half we are only thinking already of the game against Tottenham (on Sunday) because there were unnecessary losses of the ball. But overall I’m very pleased with the performance.

“We make progress in every game but we are also doing bad things in every game and we have to improve that.

“But I’m satisfied because we are dominating a lot of games, most of the games we have played this season we have dominated. We’re not always winning but that is coming.”