United are only five points adrift of the
Gunners, a point behind Chelsea and have
overtaken neighbours Manchester City for
the first time this season after their shock
defeat at Sunderland.
Cleverley, who came on at the break as a
replacement for Nenaja Vidic to play his
part in a determined second half
performance that protected Robin Van
Persie's first-half goal, said: "Going into
the game and seeing the weekend's
results, we knew it was an extra-
important three points.
"We didn't want Arsenal to go 11 points
ahead of us. This gets us right back in the
mix and gets our confidence up. This is a
big win for us as we are ahead of City and
not far behind Chelsea. We have also
played some very tough games out of our
opening 11 fixtures.
We didn't want Arsenal to go 11
points ahead of us. This gets us
right back in the mix and gets
our confidence up
Tom Cleverley
"I am sure we can get a run together and
get right up to the top. It is what
everyone predicted at the start of the
season - everyone is improving and it
makes for a really competitive season."
Cleverley hailed the way United defended
to keep only their third clean sheet of the
season in the Premier League - and
become the first team to stop Arsenal
from scoring.
"That [having to defend] is always going
to happen against a team like Arsenal," he
added. "When they take a few more risks
they start flooding players forward. It is
going to be hard defensively but we
withstood the pressure well. We
managed to grind it out in the end with a
great defensive performance. And we had
some more chances to seal it."
As for Van Persie who proved the man for
the big occasion once again with his 10th
goal of the season, Cleverley said: "I am
really happy for Robin. He is a great
finisher, a natural finisher. He has
produced the goods again."
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