Mata: Still much to play for this season

Juan Mata has told MUTV that Manchester United still have lots to play for this season, despite the inevitability of City's Premier League title win being confirmed in the most disappointing of circumstances.

Speaking after the 1-0 defeat to West Brom at Old Trafford, the midfielder insisted the team will fight to progress past Tottenham Hotspur in the Emirates FA Cup semi-final next weekend. A scorer in the final in the last success in the competition for the Reds, in 2016, Mata is also determined to ensure the Reds remain in second spot in the table.

"Second position was not done before the game," he said. "It was not done even if we won. It is even more important for the next games and we know we have to compete until the last week. It’s been a long season but we need to make sure we can compete until the end, that we keep that second position and we fight for being in another FA Cup final and try to win it."

Mata knows how significant it could be if this year’s team win the trophy in the coming weeks, even if Spurs represent difficult opponents at Wembley.

"It's the FA Cup, we all know how important it is," he added. "And then to get second in the league which is not the ideal position, but it’s the position we want to finish now."

The Spaniard also said that Saturday’s defeat was a big disappointment after the second-half display at Manchester City.

"We are frustrated ourselves with the performance and what we have to do is, from tomorrow, think about the next game and keep going, because we have very important weeks ahead," he said.

"It’s one of those days that we didn’t play good enough and we tried to create some chances in the first half and in the beginning of the second, but we didn’t play quickly enough. We made life quite difficult for ourselves so we are all frustrated, and we understand the frustration of the fans."