The Red Devils captain reveals that his side came to north London with a gameplan to hit the hosts on the counterattack – a play that earned Louis van Gaal’s men three points
“It’s a very important victory,” Rooney told Sky Sports. “We weathered the storm at times, especially first half. Our goalkeeper [David de Gea] was fantastic and we hit them with two good goals.
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“It was a different game. They had possession and we hit them on the break – that was our gameplan.”
United’s lengthy injury list led manager Louis van Gaal to select a back three featuring rookie centre-backs Tyler Blackett and Paddy McNair and Rooney feels that the youngsters performed well in a determined team display.
“We’ve put five at the back and a bit of experience in myself, Michael [Carrick] and [Marouane] Fellaini in the midfield to try and protect them,” he added.
“I felt we did that well at times and we knew we had legs in terms of Robin [van Persie], Angel and myself joining in on the break. We saw that to good effect in the second half.
“I think it’s a massive result for us. Two very young players, Paddy McNair and Tyler Blackett, in such a big game – they’ve coped well. A clean sheet – I’m sure the defence and the goalkeeper will be delighted with that.
“This will give us a lot of confidence, a lot of belief and it’s come at the right time for us.”
Despite a stuttering start to the Van Gaal era, United have now broken into the Premier League’s top four as they bid to reclaim the coveted Champions League spot that they let slip during a shambolic 2013-14 campaign.
“We’ll take each game as it comes,” Rooney added. “It’s been an indifferent start to the season but we hope now that we can go on a run of games and enjoy the position we’re in after Christmas.
“We want to try and build a bit of momentum going into the New Year so today was a massive result in terms of starting that.”
