Rooney: Arsenal draw lifted us

Wayne Rooney revealed that Arsenal’s surprise draw at Birmingham gave United extra motivation to beat Newcastle.

The striker scored two of the Reds’ five goals in a superb win at St James’ Park which closed the gap on the Gunners at the top to three points.

“We saw the Arsenal result before we played and that made us want to win even more, if that's possible,” Rooney told Setanta Sports.

“We knew we had to go out there and get three points, nothing less.

“Now we have to keep working hard and winning to try and overtake Arsenal and hopefully stay there until the end of the season.”

Rooney opened the scoring with a close-range volley but he was especially pleased with his second goal, which took his tally to eight in eight league games against the Magpies.

“I enjoyed my second goal. I'm always on the edge of the box for corners and I've been saying one will drop out to me and I'll score – thankfully that happened today.”