Manchester United boss Louis Van Gaal says that he sees arch rivals Manchester City being involved in the same top four race as his club are at the moment.
The prospects of United winning the title appeared to vanish a long time ago, but they have managed to close the gap to table leaders Chelsea in recent weeks. More importantly, they are very close to overtaking rivals Manchester City. United enjoyed a 3-0 win over Tottenham this weekend while City suffered yet another shock defeat in the league after losing 1-0 to relegation threatened Burnley.
This was a second league defeat for City in the last three matches, while there could be more waiting in the pipeline if they produce a similar poor performance against Barcelona in the Champions League on Wednesday. These defeats have reduced their significant advantage in the table. A two-point deficit with more than eight matches remaining has given United a lot of confidence that they can even sneak into the second place, which seemed improbable a few months ago. Van Gaal recently termed the top four race as a rat race and he now says that City are also involved in it even if they do not like it.
“Whether they want that or don’t want that, that is the position. It is a rat race. They are in it. We have waited a long time for such a victory and it was better because the performance was good against a very good team. I was very pleased, but I’m not sure if it was our best. You have to watch it again on video, but we played like a team, very determined after a defeat like we had against Arsenal, that we lost because of ourselves. Maybe it is the game that gives us a fantastic boost,” said Van Gaal.