Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and his Manchester United squad are not listening to early talk of a Premier League title challenge as they work on continuing to improve.
United travel to Leicester on Boxing Day with the Red Devils one point behind Brendan Rodgers’ side, who have played a game more, and a win would take them up to second to temporarily close the gap on leaders Liverpool to just two points.
Their recent run of good form, where they have gone unbeaten in their last seven league games, has sparked discussion of an unlikely title charge.
United have not won the Premier League since Sir Alex Ferguson left the club in 2013 and Solskjaer’s third-place finish last season was the second-highest league position, after Jose Mourinho’s 2017-18 squad claimed second, since then.
But, Solskjaer is not getting carried away.
“There is noise around Man Utd anyway so for us it’s about improving as a team, taking one game at a time and we have to, that’s the name of the game,” Solskjaer said.
“That is the only way that you are going to challenge for anything at the end of the season anyway so it’s not something that we talk about.
"The only thing that we talk about and focus on is improving day by day and learning how to deal with certain situations and maybe now at the moment we are getting praise and that’s another thing to learn to deal with.”
The United manager did have a warning for their rivals, though, in that he is expecting their forward line to get even better.
Injuries, suspension and illness mean Solskjaer has not been able to play his favoured front three of Marcus Rashford, Mason Greenwood and Anthony Martial together too often but, with the three back and thriving, he is expecting bigger and better things.
“He (Martial) has made important contributions lately, he has assists, scored goals, he is getting fitter, he showed it against Leeds, and he knows that I am on to him about this, and his running stats from that game set a new standard for him, which I want to see more of,” Solskjaer explained.
“He’s always going to have the quality and maybe his confidence has been bruised a little bit by what happened earlier on in the season with the red card [against Tottenham] and he has had some criticism but Anthony is going to get better and better and, when we get Mason, Marcus and Anthony firing on all cylinders, we will be more of a threat for teams.”
Solskjaer will be hoping his forward line, whoever he selects, is firing at the King Power on Saturday as he expects a tough test from Leicester, despite United’s win there on the final day of last season which secured Champions League qualification.
“It’s game by game now, we have to think that way," said Solskjaer. "We have had some very good games against Leicester, very tight games, they are a very good side with a very good coach and I have enjoyed watching them under Brendan, so it was a big test for us to go to their stadium in the summer and we passed that one with flying colours.
“We played a controlled game and I know it will not be the same now because it’s a different time of the season but they have got some threats that you have to look for and we will just have to sit down and think about it and who is fit and not fit.”