Manchester United are unbeaten in their last seven Premier League games and trail leaders Liverpool by five points with a game in hand. The Red Devils travel away from home to play Leicester City on Boxing Day on the back of a thumping 6-2 win against Leeds United.
A win against the Foxes will definitely put United as one of the contenders for winning Premier League this season. However, Ole Gunnar Soslkjaer has played down the title talks and said his team are focussed more on improving their performances and taking one game at a time.
Speaking to reporters ahead of the game, Solskjaer said “There’s noise around Manchester United anyway, so for us it’s about improving as a team and taking one game at a time, we have to. That’s the name of the game and that’s the only way you will challenge for anything at the end of a season anyway.”
“It is not something we talk about. The only thing we talk about and focus on is improving every day, and learning how to deal with certain situations. At the moment we’re getting praise and that’s another thing to learn to deal with.”
Leicester City, who defeated Jose Mourinho’s Tottenham in their last game have won four of their last six games, and Solskjaer admitted his is well aware of the threat Leicester could pose. The United manager added “We’ve had some very good games against Leicester, very tight games. They’re a very good side with a very good coach and I’ve enjoyed watching them under Brendan.“
“It was a big test for us to go down to their stadium for the last league game in the summer and we passed that one with flying colours. We played a really controlled game and I know it’s not going to be the same now because it’s a different time of the season, but they’ve got some threats that we have to look out for.“
Solskjaer praised Anthony Martial for his performance against Everton in the Carabao Cup Quarter-final, and claimed the France international will get better and score more goals for Manchester United. “Anthony has made some important contributions lately – assists, scored goals. He’s getting fitter and I think he showed against Leeds, and he knows I’m onto him about this. His running stats from that game set a new standard for him which I want to see more of.”
“He’s always going to have the quality. Maybe his confidence bruised a little bit by what happened earlier on in the season with the red card and he’s had some criticism, but Anthony is going to be better and better and when we get Mason, Marcus and Anthony firing on all cylinders as well, I think we’ll be a bigger threat to teams.”
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