Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney has expressed his belief that the club's season could be on the up, following their inspiring 2-1 victory over Premier League rivals Arsenal.
As the Englishman – who recently celebrated his 100th cap for the national team – rounded off United’s scoring at the Emirates Stadium this afternoon, he expressed his delightment at the victory for the whole squad.
We rode our luck at times, our goalkeeper was fantastic. They had possession and we hit them on the break, which was our game plan.
After an own goal from Kieran Gibbs in the opening stages of the second half gave Louis van Gaal’s side an opener against the run of play, Rooney’s subliminal chip was enough to prevent Olivier Giroud’s late strike to have any impact.
Handing Manchester United their first away victory of the season, while climbing into the top four, Rooney spoke after the game saying
"It's a very important victory. We weathered the storm at times, especially first half.
“Then we knew we could hit them on the counter-attack, we knew they were vulnerable on the break.”
The forward admitted that his club relied considerably on in-form goalkeeper David De Gea throughout the game, after an initial injury scare while on international duty, as the early departure of Luke Shaw through injury saw wingers Antonio Valencia and Ashley Young both fulfilling defensive roles.
Nevertheless, Rooney was ecstatic that van Gaal’s philosophy was a success on the pitch, adding:
"We rode our luck at times, our goalkeeper was fantastic. They had possession and we hit them on the break, which was our game plan.
"It's been an indifferent start for us. We hope now we can go on a good run of games and judge the position we're in after Christmas.
"We've got two home games coming up, we feel we should be taking six points out of them and we want to build a bit of momentum going into the New Year. Today was a massive result in terms of starting that."
Wayne Rooney has scored four goals in nine league appearances, while also claiming two assists.