The Spanish goalkeeper was delighted by the Red Devils’ “massive win” over Wolves, but has warned his team-mates to stay focused heading into 2021
David de Gea has called for Manchester United to stay calm amid talk of a tilt at the Premier League title.
United have risen to second in the top-flight standings 15 fixtures into the 2020-21 campaign, having recorded nine wins, three draws and only three losses.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s team closed the gap on defending champions and pacesetters Liverpool to just two points by beating Wolves 1-0 on Tuesday night, with Marcus Rashford grabbing the winner deep into stoppage time.
The Premier League trophy has been missing from the Old Trafford trophy cabinet since 2013, but the Red Devils are now being tipped to challenge their Merseyside rivals for English football’s top prize come May.
De Gea is reluctant to look past United’s next fixture against Aston Villa on New Year’s Day though, as the Spanish goalkeeper points out there are still plenty of games to come in both domestic and European competitions.
“We need to be calm. There are still a lot of games to play, big games, and we have the cups as well so there are many, many games,” De Gea told MUTV.
“We have to stay focused and not look forward too much but just look to the next game. So, Aston Villa is the most important thing now.”
The 30-year-old shot-stopper added on the Red Devils’ latest victory: “It was a massive win. To score at the end of the game, a tight game against a good team, this is the way to be at the top of the league,” said De Gea.
“They (Wolves) are a very good team, they defend well, they counter-attack and they have players up front with pace. It was tight. They had some chances but so did we. And scoring in the last minutes is always good. So we get the three points and that is massive for us.
“You have to fight until the end. You have to go until the end and we showed again today if you keep believing and keep trying, we can score winning goals like we did.
“It was a big performance from the whole team.”
Asked how the squad is coping with a congested fixture list, De Gea responded: “We have to be ready for Aston Villa now and recover because this was a hard game.
“The players have to recover very well because they had to run a lot and have played a lot of games, so recovering well is one of the most important things.”
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