Mata: De Gea is unquestionable for me

Juan Mata staunchly defended his Manchester United team-mate, David De Gea, following Chelsea's equaliser on Sunday.

Our no.1 palmed away a long-range effort by German defender Antonio Rudiger just before half-time, only for Marcos Alonso to follow up and convert from a narrow angle to level the game.

Despite that, Mata insists he and his United colleagues still have a huge amount of confidence in De Gea.

“David is unquestionable for me,” Mata, the Reds’ goalscorer against Chelsea, told Sky Sports after the game.

“His levels have been fantastic for this club. He has been the best player over the last years. The amount of points that he has saved us is incredible.

“We all have good and bad moments throughout our careers, but, for me, the important thing is how we react and he’s determined to react positively, to do what he does best, which is being the best.

“I have 100 per cent confidence in him - we all have. Today he is not happy, we are not happy, but tomorrow morning he will come back to training with the best attitude as always.”

The Spain goalkeeper has received the Sir Matt Busby Player of the Year Award in four of the last five seasons at United and, as a result, is widely considered one of the world’s best stoppers.

Mata, who has played with De Gea at club and international level, believes the no.1 will return to his usual impeccable levels in the very near future.

“I honestly believe he is one of the best in the world,” said Mata.

“I make mistakes, everyone makes mistakes, but you are a goalkeeper and when you make a mistake it is probably a goal and that’s very difficult for them.

“But he has a strong mentality and he will save many goals in the next games and, again, he has been the best for us. He has my full confidence, and the team’s and the manager’s, and the confidence of everyone who loves Manchester United.”

The result was a disappointing one for the Reds, considering Chelsea are still two places and three points ahead in the race for a top-four place.

“It’s very difficult,” our no.8 admitted. “We are depending on other teams. We have to try and win the last two games and let’s see what happens.

“Obviously, today we needed three points because it is Chelsea. They play very good football and are fighting with us for the top four. It was a bit disappointing, the result. We need to move on and try and finish the season the best we can.

“We wanted to win and we needed to win, so we are disappointed. I thought we had a good first half: we scored, we created chances.

“We’ve done incredibly well over the last months to get there. We will try until the end, but today we needed a win because Chelsea are fighting with us.“