Rooney bounced back from the disappointment of England's 2-1 midweek defeat in Russia to net twice and take his goal tally to six in the last five games for club and country.

Tevez tormented the normally solid Villa rearguard with superb passing and vision and it was apparent he and Rooney were both on the same wavelength.

Ferdinand said: "Wayne is in the groove and he is one of those who gets goals in spurts. He is one of those who goes on a mad goal spree.

"Wayne is definitely capable of getting 20 odd goals this season. He did it last season and I'd put money on him to do it this season if I was a betting man.

"Top players always bounce back from setbacks. We had a setback in mid-week with England and, as a top player, Wayne came back strongly for us.

"Carlos has done very well and has been fantastic since he came here. He is someone who will probably get a few more assists and maybe not as many goals as 'Wazza' but I am sure he will be around the 15-20 goal mark as well.

"Carlos gets in the holes between the midfield and the defence of opponents and, if he can keep doing that and slipping the ball through to to Wayne, they will continue to be a formidable pairing.

"It is fantastic for us to have Wayne and Carlos. The myth about the two of them not being able to play together and it was finally put to bed against Villa.

"God knows what the manager (Sir Alex Ferguson) is going to do when Louis (Saha) is fit as well because there are three more than capable players up there who can bang the goals in for us."

Rooney added: "Obviously it has been a disappointing week for England but Manchester United performed well at Villa and I've been scoring lately and hopefully I can continue that.

"We knew the other results before we played and we knew we had to get the three points. We didn't have the best of starts. Their two forwards harassed our defence and did really well.

"But we got going and Carlos (Tevez) is a great player. I can play as the one going in behind or looking for the ball in behind and Carlos can do the same so we can switch quite easily."

Only Stuart Taylor's penalty save denied Rooney a third hat-trick for United, who chalked up a seventh successive league win despite conceding their first league goal for 611 minutes.

Rooney said: "What happened is why I probably don't take the penalties every week! I take them in training and normally just smash them in so I don't know what happened there."

Villa were already well beaten before midfielder Nigel Reo-Coker and goalkeeper Scott Carson were sent off in the second half as they paid for some poor defending.

Carson said: "Rooney is in incredible form. He has been in the right place at the right time for the last few weeks and he has taken his goals well.

"It takes a bit of character after that disappointment England suffered in Russia but we are all professionals and you have got to get on with things.

"We were chasing the game trying in the second half to rescue things. There was no point just sitting back and defending so I'm not going to blame anyone for what happened.

"We are not happy with the first two goals we let in but the defenders have been superb all of this season so we can't really complain.

"If you look at the first half, we were the best team but you can't give Manchester United chances like we did because they will take them. They have top class players."

REFEREE'S REPORT - Despite his protests, Aston Villa manager Martin O'Neill could have no real complaints about the red cards handed out by Rob Styles to midfielder Nigel Reo-Coker and goalkeeper Scott Carson.

FUSSY FACTOR - On another day the official may have awarded Villa a penalty for the challenge by Rio Ferdinand on Gabriel Agbonlahor although in real time it was difficult to see contact had been made.