Manchester United forward Wayne Rooney has revealed his delight at the club's Premier League victory over Arsenal.

A header from Robin van Persie was enough to give United a 1-0 win over the Gunners.

"We knew we had to win today at all costs," BBC Sport quotes him as saying. "That was the toughest we've been to break down and we defended really well. We knew we could not afford to lose today, we couldn't let Arsenal get 11 points away from us.

"The other results today and yesterday also gave us a boost and we are right back in it now. Arsenal have a lot of smaller players in the team so we thought we could score from set-pieces, we worked on that.

"It's a massive lift, a great weekend for us ahead of the international break. Our aim is to be top or thereabouts at the New Year."

United moved up to fifth place in the table with today's victory and closed the gap between themselves and Arsenal to five points.