Erik ten Hag's pointed message to Man Utd stars amid thrilling top-four battle
Manchester United star Scott McTominay has urged his team to keep up the high standards they set in their victory over Chelsea - with Erik ten Hag wanting his players to ignore the Premier League table.
Red Devils manager Ten Hag has had a tough second season at Old Trafford, despite a promising first year where he won the Carabao Cup and secured a third-place finish in the Premier League. United lost the FA Cup final to Manchester City, who went on to match United's historic 1999 treble. The gap in quality between the two teams was evident in City's 3-0 win at Old Trafford in October.
However, United are now just three points behind their rivals after City lost 1-0 to Aston Villa and United beat Chelsea 2-1, thanks to two goals from McTominay. When asked about the close standings, McTominay said: "We barely pay attention to that in terms of we just concentrate on how we're playing and if the style of football that we're playing is how the manager wants.
"In games like tonight it was and against Newcastle it wasn't, so we have to find that balance between us where we try and do that every single week. I felt like that was a game where we had to come out and show to the fans that we have full focus on this game, we want to play well and give a reaction.
"It has to be like that every week, though, which is something that (when) I was in the dressing room... there were players speaking about it. (It) can't just be one game where we need to show a reaction. It has to come out and show that every week."
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McTominay expressed his gratitude to the United fans for "sticking with us throughout anything that goes on at this football club after another challenging few days. "We know the fans are extremely demanding and so are we as players, so that's what we expect," the six-goal midfielder told MUTV. "Going back to the game against Newcastle, we know that was nowhere near good enough and that's still stinging us.
Scott McTominay celebrates his goal with Bruno Fernandes (Getty Images)"We can't have them anomalies where we go somewhere and we don't play as well as what we can, and maybe not show as much fight as what we could as well. But tonight (the Chelsea win) is a building block and something that we can take step by step without getting too carried away."
United now refocus on Saturday's home match against Bournemouth, with stuttering Chelsea heading to Everton the following day. Mauricio Pochettino's team didn't have the best of games at Old Trafford, but they still managed to score with Cole Palmer's clever equaliser.
Chelsea captain Reece James, who joined the game after half-time, said: "We go out there wanting to win but it's still a young squad and we are learning game by game. At the moment it's quite tough, but we know we have the capabilities to win every game. We need to go back to the drawing board and review the game, and then prepare for Everton. We need to prepare right and start climbing the table."
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