Eight points gap to Manchester City means nothing: Ander Herrera

Bengaluru, November 7: Manchester United midfielder Ander Herrera has claimed eighth points gap between leaders City and United doesn't matter as the league is decided only at the end of the season.

Four big teams, Arsenal and Manchester City, Chelsea and Manchester United locked horns on a day where the gap between United and City could have been just two points, should the results have gone in United's favour.

However, the Red Devils dealt a big blow ahead of their match when Pep Guardiola's side thrashed Arsenal with a 3-1 win and later adding salt to injury United lost to Chelsea by 1-0 which widened the gap between the two Manchester giants to eight points.

Alvaro Morata scored the only goal of the game to snatch three ponits away from the high flying United side and after the game Herrera was asked about his team's chances in the league he said: "Football is about mistakes and that’s why they scored, but now we have games at home. We have to forget this.

"Now it’s the international break and some players will have rests, some players will have to play. But now we have to think about Newcastle because it’s still November, we still have a lot to play for and I’ve never seen a team winning the league in November.

"We’re still second, eight points behind City but, in the Premier League, anything can happen and eight points, sometimes, is nothing. 'We cannot think now that we have lost the league because we still have a lot of games to play."

Chris Smalling also talked about his team's performance and suggested that they could have drawn the game but have to accept the defeat and move on to the next match.

“The result is frustrating because we put in so much effort and I think we controlled large parts of the game. We put them on the back foot in the first half, we just needed to take one of the chances when we had the momentum. We also put Chelsea under some pressure in the last twenty minutes and I thought we deserved a goal.

“It’s unfortunate there’s now an international break but I think we’ll have to regroup and in our next game make sure we put on a performance to rectify this. I think it’s about us getting back to Old Trafford for that game and put on a performance that the fans can be proud of.”

Manchester United will next play Newcastle United after the international break at Old Trafford and the tie will see two conflicting managers, Jose Mourinho and Rafael Benitez facing each other again after their Chelsea and Liverpool days respectively.