Paul Pogba helped to fire Manchester United into the Premier League's top four places on Saturday but he insists the next few games that lie ahead will ultimately decide the Reds' fate.
The Frenchman netted twice in an excellent 3-0 win over Fulham at Craven Cottage, firstly opening the scoring with a fierce finish after 14 minutes before putting the game to bed with a penalty midway through the second half. His efforts were separated by Anthony Martial's sublime solo strike.
Pogba, who deservedly picked up both Sky Sports and United's Man of the Match awards, is delighted that the Reds now occupy one of the top four positions, but insists the upcoming tests against Paris-Saint Germain, Chelsea and Liverpool will ultimately have a huge bearing on the outcome of our season.
“It feels great to win, that is what we wanted. Since Ole [Gunnar Solskjaer] came in we talked about this, we want to be at the top, in the top four. There is still a long way to go, but we are there, and we want to stay there now,”
he told Sky Sports after the victory.
“We were very far away, but now we are back in the top four through good results. But like I said there is still a very long way to go and we have big games coming up and it's not going to be easy. We just want to stay there [in the top four] and when we need three points, we get the three points like today.
”We have to carry on playing like we did today. The result is positive, and it was a good performance as a team. It is always good [to win], but we have big teams [to play] now. There are big games coming up and that will decide where we are going to finish at the end of the season.“
Pogba has now scored 13 goals in all competitions, and he's in double figures for the Premier League for the first time in a single season. Howver, while the 25-year-old admits he loves finding the net, it's more important his team finds a way to win.
“[For the first goal] I shoot, I just try and it was 50/50 [if it was going to go in]. I tried with my left foot, not my best foot, but the ball went in and I am really happy,”
he continued.
“I have always said it is always great to score goals but the most important thing is to win games. You can score goals but when you don’t win it is not the same feeling so we feel great, the team feels good and we just have to carry on like this.”
The talismanic midfielder believes being in the top four, ahead of Chelsea who play away at Manchester City tomorrow [Sunday], can only aid confidence ahead of the crucial few weeks that lie ahead.
“The three points today were very important because we are fourth now even though Chelsea haven’t played yet.
”But it is a good sign, it gives us confidence as a team and we have to carry on like this to stay in the top four.“