Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson felt his side had come through a tough examination at Tottenham Hotspur. The Barclays Premier League champions recovered from a first-minute Jermain Defoe goal and the later sending off of Paul Scholes to win 3-1 at White Hart Lane. Ryan Giggs equalised from a free-kick before Anderson put United ahead and Wayne Rooney made the points secure 12 minutes from time.

"It was always going to be hard game," Ferguson said. "Tottenham are in great form and they got off to a fantastic start in the first minutes of the game.

"It was a marvellous finish from Defoe, but it was early in the game, still 90 minutes to play. We had to gather our game and show composure."

Ferguson acknowledged that he only started to breathe easily after Rooney had struck. "It was at a great time, it killed the game," he said. "We had been under the cosh because of the ten men. The goal finished the game."

Giggs felt United had produced a good night's work. He said: "It was always going to be a tough game, especially after the internationals, you don't know how players are going to react, but we played really well today.

We were down to ten men and just hanging on really, but then a bit of magic from Wayne.
Ryan Giggs on Wayne Rooney's goal

"They started really sharply, closing us down and obviously the goal. But after that we recovered and after I scored I think we controlled the game really well."

On Rooney's finish, Giggs added: "It's a great goal. We were down to ten men and just hanging on really, but then a bit of magic from Wayne.

"With ten men it is always tough, they have a lot of the ball and you have to defend really well," he said.

"They have a lot of attacking options so when you are down to ten men you just try to get behind the ball and get a breakaway goal, and that's what we got."