Wayne Rooney smashed home a penalty to spark a
second-half comeback against Arsenal, and says he'll now take the
role of permanent spot-kick taker.
The departure of Cristiano Ronaldo this summer meant
the job was up for grabs, and after Michael Carrick’s missed
penalty at Burnley, Rooney has now put his hand up.
“Nobody really knew who our penalty taker was [after Ronaldo
left],” he said. “We got one against Burnley and unfortunately
Michael missed. Since that I’ve said that I want to take penalties
and thankfully I scored today.”
Rooney was influential during United’s second-half fight-back after
Andrei Arshavin had given Arsenal a first-half lead. He admits the
Reds needed to up the performance levels after a fruitless first 45
minutes.
“I thought we were much better in the second half," he said.
"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 we did.
“Our record against the big teams last season wasn’t great. Arsenal
have started the season well and we’ve already lost once, so we
really needed the win. It’s great that we’ve got it.”