Louis van Gaal declared job done as Manchester United enhanced their Premier League top four hopes with a win which pushed\u00a0Norwich closer to the drop.<\/p>\n
Juan Mata punished Sebastien Bassong’s error as a 1-0 victory\u00a0at Carrow Road saw United move within one point of neighbours Manchester City<\/strong>, who play Arsenal on Sunday.<\/p>\n Suddenly everything is looking more positive for Van Gaal, whose position has been under scrutiny for much of the season.<\/p>\n The Dutchman could yet guide United into the Champions League and FA Cup glory.<\/p>\n “We did our job today. Fantastic, I think,” Van Gaal said.<\/p>\n “When you see the second half, we deserved to win. We’re still in the race (for the top four).”<\/p>\n Van Gaal remains aggrieved at the failure to award United two penalties in the draw with champions Leicester a week ago, believing it cost United points to leave his side relying on the Gunners.<\/p>\n “Now we are dependent on Arsenal,” he said<\/p>\n United were without Anthony Martial at Carrow Road after the striker felt a twinge in his knee in the warm up and Van Gaal was not prepared to risk the Frenchman.<\/p>\n Martial, who joined the rested Daley Blind and Marcus Rashford on the sidelines, was replaced by Ander Herrera, pushing Wayne Rooney up front.<\/p>\n Rooney, who has been playing in midfield of late, laid on the decisive goal for Mata.<\/p>\n “I don’t think he was very happy with me that I decided to put him in the striker’s position, but he could imagine also (why he had to play there),” Van Gaal said.<\/p>\n “He gave a fantastic assist to Juan Mata.”<\/p>\n –<\/p>\n Source: Talksport<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Louis van Gaal declared job done as Manchester United enhanced their Premier League top four hopes with a win which pushed\u00a0Norwich closer to the drop. Juan Mata punished Sebastien Bassong’s error as a 1-0 victory\u00a0at Carrow Road saw United move within one point of neighbours Manchester City, who play Arsenal on Sunday. Suddenly everything is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-212428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=212428"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212428\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=212428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=212428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=212428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}