Marcus Rashford claims his duel with Anthony Martial is bringing the best out of them at Manchester United.
Rashford and Martial are both in rich goalscoring form as they scrap it out for the position of second striker behind main man Romelu Lukaku.
Rashford’s double in the Carabao Cup win over Burton took his tally to five in his last five games for United.
Martial, who was voted Man of the Match, also netted to take his total to four in seven this season.
England ace Rashford says the pair are driving each other on every day to improve.
“It’s difficult when you’re in and out of the team, but we have to find the positives out of it and I think we’ve both done that,” said Rashford.
“I think the competition is always positive competition because we’re improving each other every day when we’re in training and in the games.
“We’re pushing each other more and more. It’s a bit of a headache for the manager, but it’s a good headache for him to have.”
Rashford and Martial struggled with second-season syndrome in the last campaign. Rashford went nearly seven months without a Premier League goal, while Martial netted just eight times in 45 appearances.
The France star also had to deal with personal problems off the pitch and appeared moody.
Jose Mourinho challenged Martial to improve back in April and the United boss feels he has also responded positively to a pep talk in pre-season.
Mourinho was pleased with his display against Burton, saying: “Anthony Martial wanted to do things.
“Some of them he did amazingly well, others not so well. But he was always trying and that commitment and happiness on the pitch are always important.”
Martial beat two men to create United’s third goal in their 4-1 win over Burton for Jesse Lingard and the winger says the former Monaco prodigy is a real menace for opponents.
“When he’s running at you, your defenders are on the back foot,” said Lingard. “If he continues to do that throughout this season, he’ll be a force.”