YOU WON'T LIKE ME WHEN I'M ANGRY

Wayne Rooney has admitted that his last two Manchester United performances have not been good enough. After serving a three-match domestic ban and missing all three England games so far this season, it was little surprise that Rooney should be off the pace in last week's Champions' League win over Celtic.

Much better was expected against Arsenal at the weekend but, again, the 20-year-old struggled. Eventually, to his own frustration and the astonishment of many United fans, a clearly unhappy looking Rooney was replaced by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

"I am disappointed with my own form in the last two games. It has not been up to the standard I normally play. I am disappointed but will keep working hard and hopefully my game will come back.

"The Celtic game was quite tough. It was a big game and there was a lot of pressure on us to win it. I spoke to Paul afterwards and we were both quite tired. Nevertheless, losing against Arsenal was a big blow. We have made a good start to the season and we wanted it to continue.

"Even a draw would not have been too bad but to lose in the last 10 minutes was devastating. We are still in front of the other title contenders but Sunday's game was one we could have won and we let ourselves down."

James Lawton commented in the Independent:

Next month Wayne Rooney will be 21. A time for champagne and untroubled contemplation of a prodigious playing career and vast earning power, you might say. But only if you had not seen his last two performances for Manchester United.

Ferguson had admitted being mystified at Rooney's lack of impact in the Champions' League game against Celtic. What Ferguson could least understand was the young superstar's lack of vitality, his dull body language, the sense - never before felt - that winning a football game was not something utterly at the heart of his ambition.

Could it really be that Rooney has fallen out of love with football, that too much has been expected too soon and that in the process something deep and fundamental in his make-up has been pushed off course?

Many will say this is alarmist drivel, though interestingly they can hardly include Roy Keane, who in his new and rather stunning statesmanlike pose as manager and occasional television analyst has suggested that the wunderkind has still "a hell of a lot to do, Wayne has achieved nothing. I would judge players over a few years rather than one or two."

The fact that Rooney has had two successive games of minimal impact is not in itself so significant. Great players inevitably have thin streaks of form. But it is the demeanour of Rooney that is creating the worry. The relish seems to have disappeared, and in its place there is some of that bleakness which categorised his frustration in the World Cup.