Wayne Rooney: Manchester United striker celebrates his goal against Arsenal

Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney believes the 2-1 victory over Arsenal could be a turning point for the team’s fortunes this season.

United have struggled to find any rhythm this season under Louis van Gaal, but the win at The Emirates was the first away success of the campaign.

A Kieran Gibbs own goal gave United the lead against the run of play and, as Arsenal chased the game, Rooney took advantage of the acres of space at the back to make it two.

Olivier Giroud pulled one back deep into injury time but United held firm to move into the top four of the league.

"It's a very important victory," Rooney said on Sky Sports 1. "We weathered the storm at times, especially first half.

“Then we knew we could hit them on the counter-attack, we knew they were vulnerable on the break.”

Rooney conceded United had to rely on goalkeeper David de Gea at times, but he was happy Van Gaal’s game-plan worked.

"We rode our luck at times, our goalkeeper was fantastic. They had possession and we hit them on the break, which was our game plan.

"It's been an indifferent start for us. We hope now we can go on a good run of games and judge the position we're in after Christmas.

"We've got two home games coming up, we feel we should be taking six points out of them and we want to build a bit of momentum going into the New Year. Today was a massive result in terms of starting that."