On Tuesday, Paul Pogba shot Manchester United to the top of the Premier League and set up a titanic battle against Liverpool on Sunday at Anfield.
As United climbed into pole position in January for the fPaul Pogba calls on Manchester United to ‘focus until the end’ in the Premier League title raceirst time since Sir Alex Ferguson retired, Pogba’s 71st-minute volley secured a hard-fought 1-0 victory over Burnley at Turf Moor.
“Three points ahead of bitter rivals Liverpool, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s team goes into Sunday’s top-of-the-table clash three points ahead of bitter rivals Liverpool, and Pogba said: “We won today so I’m glad we played well and glad we’re top, but some big games are coming up so we have to concentrate on them now.
‘It’s really difficult to play here. They are very strong, but we had to remain calm and, luckily, the goal came.
‘There is still a long way to go, so we will have to concentrate until the end.’
In the first half, when Harry Maguire went in only to have it ruled out for a push on Eric Pieters, Pogba felt United were deprived of a goal.
‘It’s not that I feel it was a goal, it was a goal,’ the Frenchman said.
He jumped in, headed it in, and it was a goal, but the referee thought it was an odd decision.
Solskjaer acknowledged that he had unfairly penalized Maguire.
‘That was certainly not Harry’s foul,’ the United boss said. ‘I don’t think this is close to a foul anywhere.
‘I know they (the players) disagreed with some of the choices out there, but it’s our job to calm them down and in the second half I thought they did very well.
“What a great place to be in. We know it’s going to be hard—what Liverpool has had for three and a half seasons, but we’re ready and hungry. We couldn’t ask for a better time to go to this location.
‘I always said that for us, Paul is a huge player. In the dressing-room, he’s a good character. He’s always the one the lads look at, he’s, of course, a world champion, and I think he’s at his best right now.’
In the first half, however, United was lucky not to go down to 10 men when Luke Shaw caught Joey Gudmundsson with a late challenge before Edinson Cavani was taken down by Robbie Brady.
