Valencia is January's star

Antonio Valencia’s devastating recent form has been recognised by fans around the world, who have voted him United’s Player of the Month for January. The right-winger attracted a huge 79% of nearly 20,000 combined online votes, comfortably winning the polls on all of our seven language websites: English, Spanish, Korean, Chinese, Japanese, French and Arabic. The returning Paul Scholes was second on 9%, with third-placed Michael Carrick picking up 4% of the votes. Danny Welbeck, Ryan Giggs and Patrice Evra were also nominated. Valencia’s contribution to the Reds’ cause last month was immense. He headed the opener and made Danny Welbeck’s winner at Arsenal, set up Wayne Rooney’s first goal in the FA Cup win over Manchester City, produced a towering Man of the Match display against Bolton and won United's second penalty against Stoke. It’s the first time the Ecuadorian has won the award since March 2011. Sir Alex told this month’s Inside United: “He’s looking very good. He’s over his injury now and he’s back to his best. In that kind of form, as everyone knows, he’s a real asset to us.” Sir Alex also asserted that Valencia is a “better player” than one of his Old Trafford predecessors, Andrei Kanchelskis. We’ve put together a video of the two wingers s