Di Maria Excited By Top-four Battles

Angel Di Maria is braced for a return to action after serving a one-match suspension, and the Argentinian is determined to help Manchester United through a tough run of fixtures, beginning with Sunday's Barclays Premier League clash with Liverpool.

Di Maria was sent off for two bookable offences in the Reds' FA Cup quarter-final defeat to Arsenal and subsequently missed the morale-boosting 3-0 win over Tottenham Hotspur at the weekend. But he is now back in contention for a place in Louis van Gaal's team at Anfield.

United's match with Liverpool is swiftly followed by fixtures against rivals Manchester City and Chelsea in April, as well as another encounter with the Gunners in the penultimate game of the season in May. Di Maria insists his team-mates are confident of finishing the campaign on a high.

"We are all aware that a number of big games are just around the corner, and the season will be decided by these fixtures," Angel explained in a recent interview in United Review, Old Trafford's matchday programme.

"We know all about these upcoming games and we have been thinking and talking about them for quite some time now. We've known that everything would be at stake over this final period of the season.

"Everyone at the club is 100 per cent confident, we know we want to get back into the Champions League and that we want to be fighting it out. We'll battle hard right to the end of the season. From what I know of the club, United always fight right to the end and that’s what we’re going to do."

Meanwhile, Ashley Young claims United will travel to Anfield with a single mission. “We are going there to win, you don’t go to a place to try and draw," he told ManUtd.com. "We will go there looking for the three points!"