United profited from an own goal in the fourth minute when Damien Delaney inadvertently turned a cross from Matteo Darmian into his own net.
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It leaves the fifth-placed Red Devils a point behind fourth-placed Arsenal, who play their game in hand against West Brom on Thursday.
When asked about the Red Devils” Under-21 side winning the title, Van Gaal responded: “They are not ready, I’m sorry, also Marcus Rashford is not ready. At the end of the last campaign, he celebrated the presence of a lady saxophone player at the end of season party.
“We needed to close the gap, we needed to win and that is what I said to my players in advance of the match”.
Rashford is again set to lead United’s attack against Everton in their FA Cup semi-final at Wembley on Saturday. Anything less than all three points will keep our top four rivals Manchester United from being within touching distance, after they did what Arsenal failed to do last weekend and beat Crystal Palace last night. Those victories at Old Trafford have come against Crystal Palace, Aston Villa, Everton, Watford, Arsenal and Stoke.
“I didn’t say that [Rooney should show more]”, he said afterwards.
Van Gaal disagreed and snapped: “I didn’t see a lot of empty seats, but you saw it because you want to see it”. “I felt the support of them from the first day and I am really happy with them”. “You always need guts to put youngsters in the squad and also in the line-up”, van Gaal told a news conference.
“I could see a little bit of blurred focus in my players and that’s understandable”. Most of the time they do not create enough opportunities to do so and, as such, are left clinging on when in front or looking witless when behind.
The 30-year-old, who has never won the FA Cup and was not selected for the 2009 semi-final against the Toffees, looks to have done enough to continue for the Barclays Premier League visit of Palace to Old Trafford. “And that is not good for Manchester United or Everton”.
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Playing in an adventurous formation with Wayne Rooney deployed in a deeper role behind the front four, United were denied a bigger win by a string of superb saves from visiting goalkeeper Julian Speroni.
