FEAT ON THE GROUND
Birthday-boy Pereira tells improving team-mates the key to reaching top four is to work hard & stay humble
ANDREAS PEREIRA reckons the best birthday present he can get from his Manchester United team-mates is seeing them stay humble.
Back-to-back wins have lifted the Red Devils to within touching distance of the Premier League’s top four.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side followed up the Boxing Day thumping of Newcastle with a routine 2-0 triumph at Burnley to finish 2019 in style and build some momentum heading into the second half of the campaign.
Goals in each half from Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford were more than enough to see off a limited Clarets side that rarely threatened to cause an upset.
United will now focus their attention on facing old rivals Arsenal at the Emirates on Wednesday night, looking to make it a hat-trick of wins to pile the pressure on those above them in the table.
But Brazilian Pereira, who shone against the Clarets, believes United must not get carried away with their recent success. The midfielder, who will turn 24 on New Year’s Day, said: “We knew it was going to be a difficult game and it was important after the victory against Newcastle that we wanted to keep on going.
“We showed a great mentality and, when we had the ball, we put it down and we played well, so we did great.
“The backline and the midfield as well did very well. They were very calm, and controlled the game for us, and that made it easier.
“Confidence is really high, but we have to keep going and we have to stay humble and work hard. We have to keep this momentum going and hopefully on New Year’s Day, my birthday, we can get the win.”
The home defence had no answer to the pace and power of Martial and Rashford, who cut them to ribbons at will. Pereira (left) set up Martial for the opener on the stroke of half-time following Charlie Taylor’s horrendous blunder, before United went the length of the field in stoppage time to seal the win through Rashford.
The trio of Martial, Rashford and Mason Greenwood have now scored 22 goals combined in the Premier League this term to keep United’s season just about on track. Little wonder former Reds great Paul Scholes has hailed them as one of the best attacking forces in Europe – and questioned if club bosses even need to splash out millions on buying another striker.
What Clarets boss Sean Dyche would give to have such lethal scoring options at his disposal is anyone’s guess?
It is now six games and over 10 years since his side last scored a home goal against United
– and two wins in the last seven have seen the Clarets slide down the table.
Dyche wants more from his men, starting with Wednesday’s crunch visit of Aston Villa and he said: “There were some good details in the game, and I am pleased with that side of it, but you have to be clinical.
“The thing for me is getting back to the performance levels.
“We don’t just want to keep grinding every week. It’s important that we do that, but we need to be more productive.”