Marcus Rashford notched his 28th goal of the season in all competitions on Wednesday night, scoring the winner in Manchester United's narrow 1-0 reverse of Brentford at Old Trafford.
The England international, who started through the middle against the Bees, fired home the only goal of the game after 27 minutes, connecting sweetly with Marcel Sabitzer's downward header to lash the ball home from close range. That was enough to help United halt their three-game winless run and stay on level points with third-placed Newcastle United.
Rashford's match-winning strike marked the first goal that United had scored in the Premier League since beating Leicester City 3-0 on February 19. He also scored twice that afternoon, meaning he now has 15 league goals to his name this season.
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With his clinical finish against the Bees, Rashford became the first United forward since Zlatan Ibrahimovic in 2016/17 to score 28 goals in a single campaign. The Swede joined the club on a free transfer in July 2016 and enjoyed an outstanding debut campaign in England.
Since Ibrahimovic achieved that feat six years ago, the only other United player, prior to Rashford matching his tally on Wednesday evening, to have scored 28 goals in a campaign was Bruno Fernandes, who also scored 28 in the behind-closed-doors 2020/21 campaign.
Now that he has matched the tallies recently set by Ibrahimovic and Fernandes, Rashford, who has scored ten match-winning goals in the Premier League this term, will be aiming to become the first United player in ten years to score 30 goals in a single season. Former striker Robin van Persie was the last Reds star to hit that figure, scoring 30 times during the 2012/13 campaign.
Prior to that, Wayne Rooney scored 34 goals in all competitions in both the 2009/10 and 2011/12 campaigns.
Cristiano Ronaldo was United's leading marksman last term, scoring 24 times, meaning Rashford has already gone four better than the Portuguese international. With the Reds still in with a chance of playing up to another 17 matches this season, depending on their progress in both the FA Cup and the Europa League, Rashford is on course to smash Van Persie's tally and achieve something no other United player has for a decade.
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