Manchester United striker Anthony Martial Photo: VCG

Manchester United's Anthony Martial has started the season like a player reborn. Following the departure of Romelu Lukaku, the Frenchman has been given his old No.9 shirt back and he has scored in both of the club's first two games.

The first of which was a scrappy finish against Chelsea in the club's campaign-opening 4-0 win over Frank Lampard's side. Martial bundled the ball home from inside the six-yard box for a goal that any previous wearer of the famous No.9 shirt - including Martial before he was forced to vacate it for first Zlatan Ibrahimovic and then Lukaku - would have been proud of.

The second came in Monday night's game against Wolverhampton Wanderers, where he latched on to a Marcus Rashford through ball and instinctively lashed home. Martial could and should probably have already opened the scoring from a Rashford cross but with two goals from two games and having got in to good scoring positions otherwise, there is already strong evidence that Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solksjaer could be onto something in letting the 23-year-old lead the line this season, rather than bringing in yet another expensive striker.

Those two goals also mean that Martial could also match one of the club's rarer English Premier League records - scoring in the first three games of a campaign - which would see him in illustrious company.

That feat has only been achieved three times before and by three different players. Can the club's most experienced striker - he and Rashford are in their fifth campaigns while 17-year-old Mason Greenwood is in his first full season after being handed his debut under Solskjaer last season - live up to the potential he showed with a debut goal against Liverpool?

Dwight Yorke - 1999-2000

The Trinidadian had signed for the Old Trafford side the summer before and enjoyed the finest debut season in English football history, winning an unprecedented Treble and being named the Premier League Player of the Season.

Yorke had hit the ground running in the 1998-99 season, scoring twice on his debut and again on his next start, but he went even better the following campaign.

Firmly established as Sir Alex Ferguson's first-choice striker alongisde best friend Andy Cole, Yorke scored in the season opener away to Everton, netting just seven minutes into the season.

That was followed by the second goal of a 4-0 win at home to Sheffield Wednesday and then both goals in the 2-0 victory over Leeds United at Old Trafford.

United retained their title that season, winning the Premier League by 18 points from rivals Arsenal, and they also won the International Cup with victory over Brazilian side Palmeiras in Tokyo. It was not an unqualified success though. The club were humbled at the inagural FIFA Club World Championship in Brazil, and they were humbled by Real Madrid in the UEFA Champions League quarterfinals.

Nonetheless, Yorke top-scored in the league win with 20 goals, ahead of strike partner Cole and a certain Solskjaer in third place. The former Aston Villa man would win a third title in a row the following season but then fell out of favor with Ferguson and being moved on to Blackburn Rovers.

Ruud van Nistelrooy - 2005-06

The man known as Rutgerus Johannes Martinus van Nistelrooy in his native Netherlands was a goalscorer extraordinaire in his time at Old Trafford, scoring on his debut and never really looking back. By the time he left he had won a clean sweep of the top English domestic honors - Premier League, FA Cup, League Cup and Community Shield - as well as twice being named the club's player of the year.

It was the 2005-06 season that proved to be the one where Van Nistelrooy wrote himself into the same bracket as Yorke, opening the scoring in the opener against Everton, netting the only goal against Aston Villa and then capping an away win at Newcastle United as the club kicked off the season with three wins.

In the end, despite the Dutchman's 21 goals, United finished second to Chelsea with only the consolation of the League Cup, secured with a win over Wigan Athletic.

Van Nistelrooy was benched for that final, apparently after a falling-out with Cristiano Ronaldo in training, and after finding his way back into the team he was dropped again for the final game of the season in which he still top-scored with 21 goals, five more than a young Wayne Rooney.

He moved to Real Madrid that summer and impressed at the Bernabeu before leaving for Hamburg in January 2010 - six months after Ronaldo had followed him from Old Trafford.

Wayne Rooney - 2011-12

The man who would finish his United career having taken over as the club's and country's top scorer from Manchester United legend Sir Bobby Charlton had his finest start to a season in 2011-12.

Rooney opened the scoring in a 2-1 away win against West Bromwich Albion before capping a 3-0 home win over Tottenham Hotspur at Old Trafford. He then hit a hat trick against Arsenal in a bizarre 8-2 rout that saw him take his personal tally to five in three games.

He scored 27 goals that season but it was bittersweet as the club lost the title to rivals Manchester City on goal difference.

Rooney won the league again with United ­under Ferguson and then survived David Moyes, Louis van Gaal and Jose Mourinho before returning to Everton and then on to DC United in the MLS.

A teammate of Martial at Old Trafford, Rooney is a firm believer in the Frenchman. "I think Martial, ability-wise, is incredible," Rooney told Talksport in July 2018. "But I think it's how do you get the best out of him?"

United fans will hope Solskjaer has the answer and another goal against Crystal Palace on Saturday would help prove that.