Owen Hargreaves believes that Manchester United are more than capable of finishing in the Premier League’s top four after their draw with Tottenham.
Despite taking the lead away from home through Bryan Mbeumo, United looked to be sliding towards a defeat after late goals from Matthys Tel and Richarlison.
But Ruben Amorim’s side rallied impressively to rescue a draw when Matthijs de Ligt thundered a header home from a corner in the 96th minute.
The draw extends United’s unbeaten run to five matches in the league and moves them level on points with Liverpool, who sit fourth and face Manchester City on Sunday.
And with a friendly run of fixtures to come after the international break, Hargreaves sees no reason why United can’t continue to push on up the league and give themselves a chance at qualifying for the Champions League next season.
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‘Last season they would have lost this game and, to be fair, it was a game they probably should have won,’ the former United midfielder told TNT Sports.
‘They had comfortable control of it and they prbably jus dropped a little too deep. You’ve got to credit Spurs as well, they pushed bodies forward, got bodies in the box, and kept crossing it, but I thought United lost a bit of control when Maguire and Casemiro and then Sesko went off.
‘But I think he (Amorim) will be happy in the sense they they got a goal late in the game and they are still in a decent position.
‘There is no European football and if you look at the fixtures coming up – Everton, Palace, West Ham, Wolves – after those, they’ll be second, I think and they’ll be in a position where they can strike.
‘If you look at that with no European football, Man Utd will finish in the top four.’
Expanding on his thoughts, Hargreaves added: ‘They have a huge advantage. There’s only one game a week, pretty much. You think about all the other teams, Spurs and Chelsea, everybody has European football,
‘Amorim has got time on the training pitch and he’s a great coach, we know that from his time at Sporting.
‘Last season was tricky trying to navigate all the fixtures, but if you look at who they are going to play in the next five, six games, and the way they’ve been playing – unbeaten in five – and the squad that they have, it’s settled.’
A potential problem could emerge with the departure of Mbeumo and Amad – who combined for United’s first goal on Saturday – to the African Cup of Nations next month.
But Hargreaves believes United’s squad and lack of European football will go some way to mitigating the impact.
‘That’s going to be tricky but again hopefully without so many games, they can keep the squad healthy and he can rotate players in,’ he added.
‘Obviously, Sesko is an interesting one, they’ll need him but we’ll see what happens with that injury. But I think the squad is good and I think not having European football is a miss for the club but actually it could help them get back into that top four.’
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