Van Gaal savours revenge over Foxes

The Foxes pulled off one of the shock results of the season last September when they came from behind to beat the 20-time English champions 5-3.

But on Saturday it was a completely different story as United ran out 3-1 winners at Old Trafford.

Robin van Persie put the hosts ahead with a sublime finish and Radamel Falcao added his fourth goal for the club before Wes Morgan's own goal wrapped up the win before half-time.

Marcin Wasilewski grabbed a consolation goal for the visitors towards the end of the match, but it was not enough to secure another famous comeback from the Barclays Premier League's bottom club.

"I am very pleased," Van Gaal told MUTV.

"We lost the away match and we have taken revenge of that and we have dominated the game, especially in the first half."

Van Persie admitted this week that he was deeply unhappy with his form this term.

The 31-year-old had gone over a month without scoring, but he showed supreme confidence with his ninth goal of the campaign.

Van Persie watched a majestic chip from Daley Blind float over his left shoulder and he then stabbed the ball in first time on the half-volley.

Van Gaal was pleased to see his fellow Dutchman on the scoresheet, but he took even more pleasure from seeing Falcao scramble in from close range to add to his meagre goal tally in the 32nd minute.

"I am more happy that Falcao was scoring also because Robin has already scored enough goals," Van Gaal said.

"Falcao needs that goal more than Robin. It is fantastic that they scored and beautiful goals also - very quick transition, the goal for Falcao, and Robin had a big part in it."

The only disappointment for Van Gaal was that he felt his team were too negative in the second half.

Having surrendered a 3-1 lead to Leicester at the King Power Stadium, United were wary of another collapse so they curbed their attacking instincts after the break.

But Van Gaal thinks they went too far.

"In the second half, I want to kill the game but I have to admit my players did too much to kill the game and did too much backwards," Van Gaal said.

"Nevertheless, we could have scored two goals more. We didn't do that, and they scored out of nothing."

Van Gaal's team moved up to third in the table courtesy of the win, which came as a relief after last week's surprise 0-0 draw against Cambridge in the FA Cup.

Leicester, on the other hand, remain rooted to the foot of the table.

Foxes manager Nigel Pearson was unhappy Van Persie's goal stood when replays suggested he was offside, but he was not too downhearted about the result.

"The first goal was offside and we didn't do great for the second," he said.

"Games like this for us are bonus games and our season will be defined by how we play and the results we get against sides around us.

"We don't feel we have given ourselves the best chance of getting something out of it today because we didn't do enough with the ball."