Praise from Patrice

He’s back.

Short and sweet, perhaps, but Patrice Evra’s summation of Cristiano Ronaldo will be enough to make opposition defenders quake in their boots.

Against Bolton on Saturday Ronaldo scored one and set up the other as United cruised to a 2-0 victory in his first league start of the season.

“Ronny scored against Middlesbrough [in the Carling Cup] and he’s now scored against Bolton,” Evra told MUTV.

“He’s getting better and we’d like him to be fit for every game. He had a big injury over the summer but now he’s looking more like the player we saw last season. Ronny’s back.”

The Reds’ no.7 wasn’t the only player to come in for praise from United’s left-back. Evra also singled out Wayne Rooney, Paul Scholes and new team-mate Dimitar Berbatov after Saturday’s win.

“Rooney and Scholes had a big impact [when they came off the bench],” Evra said. “Scholesy played a few long passes and opened up the game, while Wayne scored and did his job very well.

"Berba is great to play with. As a defender you can pass the ball to his feet early and you know he has a good touch.

“He needs to play a lot of games as it’s a new team for him. But he’s a good player and everybody will help him so he can give his best for Manchester United.”