Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has said Manchester United can still catch rivals Manchester City in this season’s Premier League title race as ‘stranger things have happened’ in football.
United will host Burnley this afternoon 11 points behind City with a game in hand. Win at Old Trafford and the gap is down to eight points with six games left to play.
That was the margin at this stage of the season in 2012 when United held the advantage under Sir Alex Ferguson, only for Roberto Mancini’s City team to pip them on goal difference thanks to Sergio Aguero’s last kick of the season against QPR.
City also had the advantage of a better goal difference and a game against United to drag three of those eight points back.
The chances of Solskjaer’s team overtaking Pep Guardiola’s City feel remote, but their victory at the Etihad last month and the shock win there for 10-man Leeds last weekend has offered just a chink of light.
With a possible 21 points left to play for, Solskjaer knows that anything but seven wins would spell the end of their faint hopes.
And with a trip to Elland Road to play Leeds next Sunday and home matches against Liverpool and Leicester still to come, only a win over Sean Dyche’s men will do.
“Every game is important to Manchester United and we aren’t going to just give points away easily,” said Solskjaer.
“Can we catch City? Stranger things have happened in football. Bigger leads have been given away. Of course, they have been very strong and it’s probably too much to hope for. But as long as we do our job that’s the main thing.
“We have got to win every game in the league. We know that. After that, we can only hope that something happens to City.
“We can’t control what they do. We have to play it one game at a time because we’ve got some difficult matches left ourselves.”
United come into this afternoon’s game on the back of four straight wins since the international break in the league and the Europa League and with a good level of confidence.
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