Wayne Rooney may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but you have to admire his consistency.

Like Michael Owen with the England team, when you arrive at 17 you are going to be involved for a long, long time and Rooney seems to have been around for ever.

A lot of people will feel he hasn’t quite hit the heights that were expected of him when he was a teenager making a big impact, but when someone achieves 100 caps for their country – and Rooney took it to 101 against Scotland in midweek – then you have to acknowledge his ability to perform at top level over such a period of time.

The talent of Rooney has never been doubted, but it takes a special attitude to be able to maintain a lifestyle to stay at the top of the game in the modern professional world.

To hit 100 caps for your country is a phenomenal achievement – and on top of those caps are all the goals which Rooney has scored.

He is now on 46 for the Three Lions, just two behind Gary Lineker and three behind the all-time record holder Sir Bobby Charlton, who has 49.

I think Rooney will become the new record holder pretty quickly, the way things are going, and that will be a magnificent achievement as well.

It’s funny, but back in the summer when the World Cup was being staged in Brazil, one of the main adverts caused a storm of reaction on Sky TV.

It showed Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Rooney, and the question about whether the three of them should be in the same bracket caused some heated debate.

I certainly wouldn’t put Rooney in the same breath as Messi and Ronaldo, but that suggests I’m being negative and derogatory about the Manchester United player when nothing could be further from the truth.

I wouldn’t take anything away from what Rooney has done, it’s just that when you are talking about the other two you are in the realms of the best of the best.

Rooney will become an England record holder, and his consistency over time simply has to be respected.

It’s back to the Premier League for Rooney this weekend and, if Manchester United’s injury problems are to be believed, he might be playing on his own against Arsenal on Saturday teatime!

Without the likes of Daley Blind and possibly David de Gea it’s another massive test for United manager Louis van Gaal, and perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised the Old Trafford side are already being quoted at 40/1 to win the title.

With only a third of the season gone it’s already a one-horse race, with Chelsea at 1/6 to lift the trophy.

After that you’ve got Manchester City at 6/1 and Arsenal at 33/1, with Liverpool as far out as 150/1.

Perhaps punters might like to take a look at Southampton, who are 66/1 for the title but as short as 2/1 for a top-four finish.

My Sky colleague Ed Chamberlin is a massive Southampton fan and he reckons they are going to make the top four, and I think it would be quite nice for the neutrals to see a team break the top-four mould this time.

We’ve been expecting a Tottenham or an Everton to do that, but it doesn’t seem to work that you can have a good campaign in the Europa League and a good campaign in the Premier League at the same time.