Manchester United captain Wayne Rooney was delighted with the manner of their 3-0 win over Tottenham.

United took full advantage with a rampant first-half display that yielded goals for Marouane Fellaini, Michael Carrick and Rooney. The latter was in good spirits after the final whistle and was keen to praise an excellent victory at a crucial stage of the season.

"We knew it was a big game, obviously with Manchester City losing on Saturday and Southampton drawing before we came out," Rooney told Sky Sports. "It was a big game for us to take some points off Tottenham and these are three great points for us.

"We have played well a few times this season. Particularly in the first half, that was probably the best 45 minutes we've had all season. In the second half we knew we didn't want to lose advantage of the three goals that we had, so we defended really well, we saw the game out and won the game."

Rooney scored his 13th goal of the season on Sunday with a terrific solo run and finish past Hugo Lloris, which put United 3-0 up after just 34 minutes.

"It was obviously a nice goal," Wayne admitted. "I think it was a mistake by [Nabil] Bentaleb and I picked the ball up, saw that I had no team-mates around and I just went for it, attacking the defence. Thankfully I went through and scored."