With two Manchester United legends, Sir Bobby Charlton and Sir Alex Ferguson, watching in the stands, Wayne Rooney staked his claim to join them as he overtook Charlton’s all-time United goal-scoring record with his 250th goal for the club - and a spectacular one at that.
With Stoke hanging on to a first-half lead courtesy of a David de Gea own goal, Rooney came off the bench and had only one thing in mind when Joe Allen fouled Marcus Rashford four minutes into injury time, wide on the left. A cross seemed the likely option, but instead Rooney sent the ball flying into the top corner of Lee Grant’s net with a brilliantly-executed free kick to extend United’s unbeaten run to 17.
It was a thrilling end to an absorbing game that had taken some time to warm up. Stoke’s new £12m signing Saido Berahino made an early appearance, but only in civilian clothing as he was introduced to the home crowd before the kick-off to a muted reception. Stoke were unchanged from the side that defeated Sunderland the previous week. Jose Mourinho made four changes, among them Michael Carrick retreating to the bench and Marouane Fellaini coming into the starting line-up.
The big Belgian midfielder was among a number of United players who squandered chances before half-time as the away side dominated, but found themselves going into the break a goal down. The two sides had spent the first 20 minutes figuring each other out and United were still in quizzical mood when they conceded the opener. The chief question being: how did that goal go in?
In fairness, it was a smart Stoke build-up with Peter Crouch coming deep to head a long clearance into the path of Marko Arnautovic, who played a give-and-go with Allen. Arnautovic then got one-on-one with Antonio Valencia, and it was at this point that United started to struggle. From close to the dead-ball line, the Austrian picked out the run into the box of Erik Pieters and his low cross first came off the leg of the retreating Juan Mata, then struck the knee of De Gea and ended up in the back of the net.
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Eager to make up for the misfortune, United piled forward in greater numbers, with greater purpose and should have been at least on level terms going into the second half.
On the half-hour mark, Paul Pogba found Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who had managed to peel away from Ryan Shawcross and beat a poorly-set offside trap. Ibrahimovic took a touch with his left foot and then picked out Mata at the far post with a perfectly-weighted ball. Mata had what appeared to be a tap-in with his favoured left foot, but the ball bounced in front of him and he managed to scoop it over the bar.
Five minutes later, as Stoke started creaking, Ibrahimovic tried the same routine, but this time Bruno Martins Indi slid in to intercept. United then came close again on 42 minutes, when Fellaini mishit an effort that eventually went out for a corner. Taken quickly by Mata, the ball landed at the feet of Pogba, who made good contact but Grant was in the right place to beat the ball away.
Fellaini was first to make way in the second half as United threw more firepower at Stoke in the shape of Rashford. Rooney would then enter the fray soon after the hour mark, but for all their possession deep inside the Stoke half, they created very little with Ibrahimovic and Henrikh Mkhitaryan fading as the game went on.
Much of Stoke’s defending and clearing was of the desperate variety, but all the more valiant for that. Rooney teed up Rashford nicely, but the striker shot over. Substitute Jesse Lingard then clipped the top of the bar with a shot from outside the box. Shawcross and Martins Indi appeared immovable, but Rooney eventually found a way round them.