David De Gea rises to catch the ball.

De Gea issues Old Trafford fortress message

Monday 30 September 2019 23:10

David De Gea has told his Manchester United team-mates that Old Trafford has to become a winning stage if the Reds want to climb the Premier League table.

United shipped two vital points in the 1-1 draw with Arsenal and, despite wins over Chelsea and Leicester City, the defeat to Crystal Palace in August has also cost the Reds.

It leaves us in 10th position and those five points lost in our own stadium would have seen the club comfortably in the top four.

David De Gea makes a comfortable save against the Gunners.

Our goalkeeper says it is a trend that must change after Scott McTominay’s opener against Arsenal was cancelled out by Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s second-half equaliser.

“We're playing at Old Trafford, so we have to win these games if we want to finish in the top four,” the Spaniard told Sky Sports.

“This is Manchester United. We play at Old Trafford, so we have to win these games.

“Of course we have a young team, but the lads have to react, have to play better than what they are doing. So we are a team, we know that we have to improve.

“We are working really hard to do it. We are looking forward to the next game and we'll try to win.”

De Gea, however, felt United did enough to have won the match. “I think so. We had good chances, of course they have good chances as well, but the better ones were for us,” David said.

“But we gave away an important goal. So we want to keep learning. We have a young team, so it's time to keep looking forward and try to win the next game.”

There were suggestions that United’s defence were distracted by a flag and a whistle when Aubameyang levelled in the 59th minute. The goal was initially ruled out for offside by VAR overturned the decision.

“Of course [we were distracted]," he added. "The issue is the linesman not keeping his flag down, but we also know that VAR is behind, so if it's offside, it's offside. So [there's] nothing to do.

“We have to keep focused on the game, we gave away an easy goal for them. We had control of the game, I think, so we will need to learn from that mistake.”

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