Paul Pogba insists Manchester United CAN catch rivals City despite 12-point gap in title race
MANCHESTER UNITED are hell-bent on an improbable title charge as they bid to chase down Premier League leaders Manchester City, insists Paul Pogba.
City suffered their first defeat in the league this season at Liverpool in a 4-3 thriller on Sunday and United's 3-0 victory over Stoke the following day cut the advantage to 12 points.
It may still be a sizeable margin but after helping maintain United's 100 per cent start to 2018 with two assists against the Potters, Pogba is not ready to throw in the towel in the title race just yet.
The 24-year-old said: "Obviously we see Manchester City in front of us and they lost.
"They are first so we always want to catch them, so it was good that they lost, so for us we have to think about ourselves.
"It's good that they lose points but we have to go back to winning because we want to catch them again.
"We're not looking to the past. We're just looking to the future and the next games.
"We just want to catch City. We just have to focus on ourselves, keep winning and I think we will be okay."
United eased to three points against struggling Stoke at Old Trafford, though boss Jose Mourinho was not totally satisfied afterwards.
DEAL ME IN Keep up-to-date with all the latest transfer news and gossip in our live blog
The Potters had three good openings between Antonio Valencia's opener and Anthony Martial's strike later in the first half.
Mourinho was far more upbeat about his team's performance after the interval when Romelu Lukaku added a third.
The Portuguese said: "I didn't like the first half, I only like two amazing goals.
MOST READ IN FOOTBALL
"But I think we were confident and organised, but a bit slow.
"They had the ball and it was difficult for us to press them. They had more chances than I would have liked them to have had in the first half.
"We scored two amazing goals and for me that was the good thing of the first half.
"Second half, totally different. We missed lots of chances because we accelerate the game. We recover the ball faster, we didn't let them play.
"In the second half, we played confidently and fast and aggressive and I liked the second half."