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.”