Rooney: Rio is the best

Wayne Rooney has praised England international defender Rio Ferdinand for his recent performances for Man Utd in the Premiership. Manchester United have caught up with Arsenal and are enjoying the best defence in the Premiership.

Rooney told United's official website: "Vida and Rio were brilliant for us. I think Rio is probably the best defender in the world at the moment. He's been doing really well for us. The whole defence and the whole team is defending well."

United's winning goal at Anfield - scored by Carlos Tevez - came from a corner rolled back to Rooney on the edge of the Liverpool box.

The move caught the home defence napping, and Rooney admitted: "It's not something we worked on. We saw how they set up on an earlier corner, with everyone in the box.

"So I spoke with Giggsy and we decided to play the next corner short. I had a shot and luckily Carlos was in the right place to finish it off."