Rooney scored his 249th United goal inside 10 minutes to match the 44-year-old record.
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Anthony Martial slotted his sixth goal of the season into the bottom right corner to double the lead eight minutes later before Marcus Rashford’s second-half double sealed a comfortable victory.
Rooney’s last goal came against Feyenoord in the Europa League in November but he marked his return from a hamstring injury with a fortuitous finish to set a slick United on their way to victory.
Marcus Rashford netted the third before doubling his tally after a disgusting error by Reading keeper, Ali Al Habsi.
Arsenal, FA Cup winners in 2014 and 2015, will look to progress later on Saturday when they visit second-tier Preston North End.
JOSE MOURINHO, United manager, who is awaiting captain Wayne Rooney’s next strike which will be his 250th for the club. We’re happy for him.
But the day largely belonged to Rooney, with England’s record goalscorer now only one short of achieving the same feat for his club.
The former Chelsea boss struggled in his opening couple of months as Manchester United manager after the Red Devils managed to record just two wins during a 11-game run in the Premier League. “They trained well, have a big desire to play and are good friends with each other”.
United’s captain and was able to invest great effort by Marcial in the left side to score the first goals of the game in the seventh minute.
In the closing stages in the first half, United continued to create the chances but failed to convert any.
In terms of team news news ahead of the game, Jose Mourinho confirmed at his pre-match press conference that Eric Bailly is the only absentee for the game due to him being away at the African Cup of Nations.
Sunderland and Burnley played out a goalless draw and will meet again at Turf Moor the week after next in the replay.
“You saw that again”, he said.
MAN UTD: Romero; Young, Smalling, Rojo (Jones 19), Blind; Carrick (Fosu-Mensah 78), Fellaini; Mata (Schweinsteiger 78), Rooney (c), Martial, Rashford.
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Reading were simply naive in many areas, with their defending not up to the standards expected of a team knocking on the door of the Premier League – most notably in the embarrassing error from Ali Al-Habsi that gifted Rashford the fourth goal of the game. What’s more, the competition favourites also tend to be eliminated fairly early on average as the domestic competitions seem to be more important for numerous game’s greats.
