Rasmus Hojlund was relieved to break his Premier League duck by netting Manchester United's winner against Aston Villa.

The Red Devils were 2-0 down before staging a dramatic Boxing Day comeback Old Trafford, with the Danish powerhouse sealing the three points via his maiden top-flight strike, which has taken 15 appearances to arrive.

He said: "It's been a while but I'm happy.

"I'm the happiest man alive right now — you can see in the celebrations as well. We believe until the end and we showed a lot of character again today.

"I've scored a couple in the Champions League but of course, it's been a while in the Premier League.

"I'm happy to get the first one and now hopefully I can keep going."

Their victory ended a four-match winless run for United, who had also failed to score in their last four games in all competitions.

Manager Erik ten Hag praised the second-half performance of his players and admits his squad need to have a bit more faith in their abilities.

Ten Hag explained: "I said before the game that we were competitive with Arsenal, competitive with Liverpool so if we play our best we can beat anyone.

"Believe that, even when you are two down, it doesn't matter. Keep going, show character, and today they did show we have the personality to do it. 

"I think it was a very good team performance.

"At half-time I said to the team, 'Keep believing, and keep doing what we did, actually do even more'. 

"We needed to put more and more pressure on. At 1-2 then when we added pressure you see what happened."

The win takes United to within five points of fourth-placed Tottenham, albeit the Red Devils have played a game more.

They will travel to Nottingham Forest on December 30 and bid to pick up consecutive wins in the league.