Juan Mata believes the Red Devils have set themselves up for a serious challenge for the Premier League title. A 2-0 victory against WBA on Saturday has left United 1 point behind both Manchester City and Arsenal, who both feature in games today. Arsenal entertain North London rivals Spurs at the Emirates, whilst City travel to Villa park for the afternoon kick off.
Whilst talking on MUTV, Mata referred to United’s title challenge “It was a difficult month for us with some tough games, but I think we are still in the position to do it.” According to Opta stats, since making his debut for the club, Mata has been involved in the most number of goals from any other player (30). It highlights the influence the Spaniard has in this team and United will want that to continue.
United have been under pressure from fans and pundits alike for their lacklustre performances of late. With the fans chanting for the team to “Attack, Attack, Attack”. Frustrated fans, who have been used to seeing flowing attacking football even created a new chant as can be seen in the video below.
Prior to facing CSKA in the Champions League they were close to creating an unwanted goalscoring record, for the most number of games without scoring a goal. However a 1-0 win midweek and victory yesterday has now put a different spin.
Mata went on to say “I think we are doing great defensively…David is obviously a world-class goalkeeper and we have great defenders who are doing really well, but the whole team is trying to defend compact and I think that is the key to winning games.” Despite criticism of their play, United are very will poised to mount a serious challenge for the title and they have important games coming up after the international break.
There as still many games to come before the end of the season and therefore it will all be about taking each game at a time.
