Mata Proud To Be A Red

Each and every Monday during the season, Manchester United star Juan Mata writes a personal blog. In this week's entry, he takes a look back on two fine wins against Basel and Everton...

Hi everyone, It’s been an intense and happy week for the Manchester United family, with two games and two convincing wins at Old Trafford, feeling the extraordinary support from our fans and without conceding a goal. The team keeps working very well and we’re getting the reward that we deserve so far.

The game last Tuesday against Basel was special because it was the club’s return to the Champions League. The way we won gave us not only three points but plenty of confidence as well. The game was not as easy as the score indicates, but I honestly think that we deserved the victory. 

And the same can be said about this Sunday’s game against Everton. We had a very strong start in the first half – by the way, what a superb goal from Antonio, the goal of the season so far – and we kept the 1-0 advantage until the last few minutes, when we managed to score more goals to seal the victory. 

I want to highlight Wayne Rooney’s return to Old Trafford. He’s part of the Manchester United legend and the crowd gave him the ovation that he deserves when he was substituted. Seeing that respect from our fans in the stadium to our former captain was really moving. It makes you feel proud of belonging to this club. I think Wayne has still a lot of things to say in football and I wish him the best for the rest of the season.

We are happy, for sure, but we keep the euphoria away from the dressing room. Inside, we remain calm, with our feet firmly on the ground. We haven’t won anything yet, this is just the beginning and, with such a busy schedule, there’s no time to slow down and relax. This coming Wednesday, we start the Carabao Cup, a new name for a competition in which we are the defending champions. We will be facing Burton Albion, a Championship club that will visit Old Trafford trying to play a historic game. They have just defeated Fulham and I’m sure they will try to surprise us.

Back to the Premier League, on Saturday, we play against Southampton, always a tough team to visit. They don’t concede goals easily and they have a good balance in the squad. It will be a pleasure to face my good friend Oriol Romeu. We will try to upset him a little bit by winning the game just the day before his birthday!

Have a nice week. Hugs, Juan.

Credit: Manutd.com