David de Gea’s cruel 82nd-minute own goal condemned Louis van Gaal’s Manchester United to a 2-1 defeat at struggling Sunderland on Saturday that compromised their hopes of Champions League.
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“When I say that I have excuses, I do not want to have these excuses”.
Asked whether finishing in the top four is the minimum requirement for a United manager, Van Gaal said: “Yes”.
“Top four will be very hard now”.
“Top four will be very hard now”.
“We had to win this kind of game and we didn’t, so we can only blame ourselves”.
Not only are they getting a bit of warm weather but we got three points off Man Utd – there can’t be anything better to boost your confidence than that. That’s our aim, the minimum requirement for a club like this. “You can not close your eyes to that”. Yet, the 20-time champions on 41 points have never had fewer points after 26 games of a Premier League season.
Rooney believes United must now win the Europa League to secure Champions League football next term.
He added: “Bastian has been unlucky because in the matches before he was injured he was very good”.
Van Gaal’s problems mounted when Italian right back Matteo Darmian suffered a dislocated shoulder against Sunderland and the Dutchman was forced to send on 21-year-old Donald Love for his debut.
Chelsea are now eight points shy of the European places, but victory came at the cost of an injury to departing captain John Terry, who went off in the 38th minute. They have a taller team.
Were you let down by your players?
Sunderland’s pressure mounted and they had penalty appeals turned down by referee Andre Marriner, who was well placed to wave play on when Khazri’s shot struck Morgan Schneiderlin on the arm inside the area. We’re pulling at the same strings. “Nor will I ring him” said Van Gaal.
Earlier Martial had cancelled out Khazri’s third-minute opener.
The victor arrived when the United goalkeeper failed to deal with a header from Lamine Kone, a £5 million signing from Lorient, with Martial’s attempted goal-line clearance hitting the Spaniard and going in.
Our new players have made a massive contribution since they’ve been here, but no more so than today with Wahbi’s goal from the free-kick and then his corner for Lamine’s victor. They’re on their knees in the dressing room because the pace is so much quicker than they’re used to playing in France.
Painful statistics are lining up: this was a seventh League defeat for United this season, and their points tally is their lowest at this stage in the Premier League era.
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“Because I have said many times that not all the media, but a lot of media, is inventing stories and you don’t have to answer on invented stories”.
