Rooney Is Spot On

Wayne Rooney smashed home his penalty to spark a second-half United comeback against Arsenal, and says he will take the responsibility of being permanent spot-kick taker.

The departure of Cristiano Ronaldo meant the role was up for grabs, and after Michael Carrick’s missed penalty at Burnley, Rooney was first to put his hand up.

“Nobody really knew who our penalty taker was [after Ronaldo left],” he said on Saturday. “We got one against Burnley and unfortunately Michael Carrick missed it. Since that I’ve said that I want to take penalties and thankfully I scored one today.”

Rooney was influential during United’s second-half fight-back after Andrei Arshavin had given Arsenal the lead in the first half. Rooney admits the Reds had to raise the performance levels after a fruitless first 45 minutes.

“It was a good game,” he added. “I thought we were much better in the second half than we were in the first half. Arsenal had a bit of possession but I didn’t think they really hurt us apart from the goal. We knew we had to come out and play better in the second half and thankfully we did.

“Our record against the big teams last season wasn’t great. Arsenal started the season well and we’ve already lost once this season, so we really needed the win today. It’s great that we’ve got.”