Manchester United captain Wayne Rooney defended their performance in victory over Sunderland.

Rooney struck twice as United laboured to a 2-0 win.

"It's great to score but the three points are the most important thing after last week," he said.

"We deserved the three points.

"We knew Sunderland would be dogged. They defended well, but we were patient. It was a good performance.

"The performance was good. We had a bit more space with the 10 men but we should have been ahead before that.

"I think there are a lot of teams in a good run of form and there's not much difference between the top teams. We hope that, come the end of the season, we're in the right position."