Manchester United fullback Ashley Young is absolutely oozing confidence right now, sending strong messages to Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester City. Sunday will see United play the last of three straight matches against giant clubs when they host Premier League leading Liverpool.
United suffered their first loss under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer last week on Tuesday, but responded with a dominating win at Chelsea in the FA Cup Monday night. Asked whether the win has created a surge in confidence ahead of the clash against their arch-rivals, Young responded with: “It gives us all massive belief.”
“Obviously you will get confidence from winning games and that’s exactly what we have done today. We beat Spurs away, and Arsenal away and now Chelsea away. We knew it would be tough, we had to be on the front foot and we knew we would have to defend but it’s a fantastic result for us.”
In addition to the warning sent to Liverpool, Young, who recently signed a one year contract extension, taunted Chelsea.
“We knew Chelsea’s weaknesses and we knew how we wanted to play the game. I think we did that superbly well from the start until the end and it was magnificent, and I think we had another gear to go.
“That says a lot about us bouncing back from midweek and getting a result here today.”
Indeed it was a very impressive response by the Red Devils, who have won 11 of 13 under Solskjaer. The big question of the Norwegian’s interim regime was always going to be- how would United respond to the first loss while he’s in charge?
And they passed that test with flying colors.
Young also sent a message to United’s cross-town rivals, saying that his side hoped and expected to draw Manchester City in the next round of the FA Cup.
Instead they will travel to Wolverhampton Wanderers for the quarterfinal round of the domestic competition.
“I was surprised we didn’t get City- that’s what we were looking for,” Young continued, “but you have to beat every team in the competition and that’s what we’ll do; go down there to beat them and get through to the semi final.”
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, regularly appears as a guest pundit on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
He also contributes sociopolitical essays to Chicago Now. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram. The content of his cat’s Instagram account is unquestionably superior to his.