Valencia: Top-four Battle Ahead

Manchester United have gradually improved to break into the Barclays Premier League's top four – but Antonio Valencia warns the hard work starts here.

After a slow start to the season, a run of one defeat in 13 league games has lifted Louis van Gaal’s men to fourth place in the table, two points behind Southampton.

But with Arsenal breathing down the Reds’ necks, and games against several other teams at the top still to be played, there’s a battle ahead to secure a Champions League spot.

"It’s very open and quite tight in those top spots," Valencia told MUTV. "We’re seven points behind second place and then a couple of teams are three or four points below us.

"We must fight hard in the remaining games to finish as high as possible. It’s a long season and we’ve picked ourselves up of late, so we need to keep the results coming for the fans.

"We’ve got tough games coming up against very good teams and rivals for our position but, if we keep the concentration high, we can achieve our aim of a top-four finish."

The summer arrivals of Angel Di Maria, Marcos Rojo and Radamel Falcao swelled the ranks of Spanish-speaking players at the club and Valencia feels they’ve integrated well. Indeed, the Ecuadorian senses the whole squad is pulling together in the same direction.

"Angel, Rojo and Falcao are terrific: they’ve all settled quickly into the group and I think they’re all really enjoying life here," Valencia said.

"We’ve got a top bunch of lads with Anderson, Rafael and all the English lads too. We all get along really well – [the atmosphere] is great but it’s always been great here."