Erik ten Hag admits that he isn't getting carried away with Manchester United 's ferocious form - but he's happy for fans to "dream" of a long-awaited Premier League title.
After a nightmare start to the 2022-23 season, the Red Devils have turned things around as they approach the halfway stage and marked their resurgence with an epic 2-1 win against bitter rivals Manchester City on Saturday. Ten Hag's side went 1-0 down before late goals from Bruno Fernandes and Marcus Rashford snatched all three points from Pep Guardiola 's reigning champions.
The result puts United one point behind City, who're themselves five adrift of league leaders Arsenal. Title chatter washed over Old Trafford after full-time, but the Red Devils boss is keeping typically level-headed, despite his team's run of nine successive victories.
“We have improved, that is obvious,” he said. “There is still a long way to go but we have a lot of aspects in our game we have to improve but we are progressing.
“The fans may dream but we are not, we have to keep our feet on the ground and face that our game has a lot to improve. It can’t happen that after half-time we are losing so much control in the game.”
Ten Hag was also delighted with Rashford's latest goalscoring act, particularly with the England striker playing through the pain after suffering an injury during the first half.
“He knows that in football you have to suffer and sacrifice and have painful moments, especially a player like he is.
“He is unstoppable and opponents will go tough against him but he keeps going and he got rewarded and the team got a reward.”
Have your say! Are Man Utd in the Premier League title race? Give us your verdict in the comments section.
Club legends Rio Ferdinand and Paul Scholes echoed the Dutchman's sentiment in their analysis, but Scholes reckons that United are indeed in with a chance of catching Arsenal.
"You asked me the question before are they in the title race? I think you have to say they are," the former midfielder stated on BT Sport. "If they keep people fit, they're one point behind City now - City for me are still the best team in this league - and it's okay winning games now, but March and April time it's so hard to win those games.
"Arsenal are going really well, they look a really good team, but injuries could affect them, and they've got a manager who's inexperienced in winning league titles and trophies really. There’s 20 games to go, there's so far to go in this - it could change by February."
Ex-centre-back Ferdinand added: "They're closing the gap [on City] slightly, but I still think there's a major way to go. The gulf between the clubs is still huge, don't let this result kind of take your way of looking at things and become unrealistic. Man United have still got a way to go but they're on the right road now and Man United fans, I think I felt something in this ground that I haven't felt for a long time, there was a belief.
"There was a connection between the players on the pitch and the fans again because there's a committed team out there who are willing to fight, who won’t fold under pressure, won't fold when there’s a bit of a bad spell in a game, and that's only good for the future of this team.
"The manager has to have huge compliments right now because he’s building a team that are up for the fight."
