Mata: What Solskjaer told me on my debut

Hi everyone. Today I want to start off my post by saying thank you. Honestly, thank you to everyone who has remembered that recently it was five years since I arrived at Manchester United.

On this Monday, as my blog goes up, it is the anniversary of my first game as a Red Devil and it is a date that brings back great memories for me: Old Trafford, the kindness shown by everyone, going from the tunnel onto the pitch, the win…

I can say that today I still hold those same feelings and it is something that I am hugely grateful for. What plenty of you don’t remember is that on that day our current manager [Ole Gunnar Solskjaer] was there too… although he was on the opposing bench!

I remember his words in the tunnel before I headed out onto the pitch: “Welcome to this fantastic club, Juan, it is incredible, you’ll see. Enjoy it as much as you can and good luck.” Five years later, we’re both still here.

This anniversary also coincides with the team’s very good form - eight wins in a row, the most recent coming against Arsenal at the Emirates.

To pass into the next round of the FA Cup has been great for the dressing room because, as I wrote last week, it is a competition that excites us a lot and one that we’ve got huge hopes for.

As expected, it was a tough game, but the team is playing with more confidence and we are going to battle to carry that on for as long as we can.

We’ll start to do that tomorrow. Our fixture list doesn’t let up and, on Tuesday, we will return to Old Trafford to face Burnley in the Premier League.

We are not obsessing over our place in the league table but rather enjoying every game, competing and making the most of them as much as possible. With this mentality, we are making progress and we’re on the right track. This week there are also two games, as on Sunday we must pay Leicester a visit.

As I’ve already said, we are taking things day by day, meaning that currently we only have Burnley in mind.

Hugs, Juan.

You can read my full blog post here on my website, JuanMata8.com.