Reds Aim To Regain Top Spot

Manchester United defender Phil Jones says going top of the table has been a great boost to everyone in the squad and the England international isn’t bothered if some people don’t believe it’s where the Reds deserve to be.

Last weekend’s 3-0 win over Sunderland followed a 4-1 defeat for Manchester City at Tottenham Hotspur, which allowed Louis van Gaal’s men to jump above our local rivals to top spot.

City thrashed Newcastle United on Saturday to temporarily take over first place but United can go top again with victory at the Emirates on Sunday afternoon. And Jones insists the Reds are focused on maintaining recent good form and results in order to stay well in contention for the title.

"It’s a great boost [to be top of the table] and it raises a few eyebrows," he told MUTV. "Hopefully we can keep raising a few more because our results and our performances have been very good this season. We want to maintain that and keep things going."

When asked whether negative comments from pundits about United’s form has an effect on the Reds, Jones added: "Not really, no, because when we’ve been winning games in the past they said we weren’t scoring enough goals. We were maybe winning 4-0 but would say we should have won 10-0! You always get that. That’s their job – they’re there to make judgemental comments which make the back pages."

Arsene Wenger’s side go in to Sunday’s game on the back of a surprise defeat to Olympiacos on Tuesday but Jones says, while that may motivate the Gunners further to put things right on Sunday, the Reds will be ready.

"Arsenal have always got talented players in their side, whether they’re playing well or not," he continued. "They lost in the Champions League the other night, so that’ll be an added incentive for them to put things right at home, which means it’ll probably be doubly difficult for us. But I’m sure if we play the way we know we can play and have been playing, we’ll go into the game confident."

"United-Arsenal is a fixture everyone wants to watch worldwide. Let’s hope it’s a fascinating game and one we come out on top of."