Wayne Rooney was named Man of the Match in our 2-1 victory over Arsenal yesterday after scoring our equalising goal. Given that our winning goal was scored by an Arsenal player, I suppose whoever was making the decision didn’t feel as though they had much choice.
After the match, Rooney revealed that incredibly nobody knew who our penalty taker was which is why Michael Carrick stepped up to take the pen against Burnley. I mean, wow, how it that possible? Obviously Cristiano Ronaldo had always taken our penalties but surely there should have been some sort of discussion over who would be taking over from him. Incredible.
Regardless, Rooney very modestly claimed that whilst he’d been named Man of the Match, a victory wouldn’t have been possible without Darren Fletcher.
“No-one really knew who was our penalty taker,” said Rooney. “Then we got one at Burnley but Michael unfortunately missed it so from then on I said I’d take them – and thankfully I scored today. It was a good game and I thought we were much better in the second half. Arsenal had a lot of possession in the first half but didn’t really hurt us – apart from the goal. The second half we knew we had to be better and thankfully we were.”
“No, there was no controversy in my penalty,” he said. “I tried getting on the end of the ball and I’ve done so and the goalkeeper took my legs from me – so I’ve had no option. Last season our record against the big teams wasn’t great and Arsenal have started the season so well, so we needed to win today.”
As for Darren “Football Genius” Fletcher, Rooney reckons he should have got his man of the match award.
“I’ve said many times that forwards, if they score goals, tend to get man of the match awards – but I think Fletch was head and shoulders over anyone on the pitch today.”
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