Manchester United defender Ayden Heaven says “anything is possible” and that Ruben Amorim’s team could even challenge for the Premier League title this season after beating Newcastle at Old Trafford. United beat the Magpies 1-0 courtesy of Patrick Dorgu’s excellent 24th-minute volley and had to dig in defensively in the second half as the visitors dominated the game. Teenage centre-back Heaven was crucial to the Red Devils securing all three points with an assured performance – and then post-match suggested his team-mates should dream big this season.
That’s despite leaders Arsenal still being 10 points clear of United with an extra game to play, at home to Brighton tomorrow. Man of the match Heaven told Sky Sports: “It was [big]. Finally a clean sheet. We’ve been waiting for this for a couple weeks. I’m just so happy. I’m so thankful for everyone that helped us [win]. As Manchester United we belong in Europe and we want to get back there next season. We can push for the top four, possibly push for the league. Anything is possible. We are just going to keep trying.
“The manager, we play loads of formations with him, whatever he does we know it’s going to work, you saw today. I’m so proud of the team.”
Goalscorer Dorgu added: “It was a good hit. I didn’t know I could do that [laughs]. Very happy to score my first goal in this stadium. It was amazing. Yeah I took what he [Ruben Amorim] told me, to work on my confidence.
“I think I did well today. I just looked at the ball and saw it drop and I just hit it. I have been practicing [my finishing] in training. I think that’s what helped me.”
Heaven is clearly a confident character, having said after the 4-1 win over Wolves earlier this month: “I don’t think anyone can stop us when we play like this. We want to win as many games as possible. Hopefully we can be in Europe next season, which I think we’ll do.”
Reacting to the win over Newcastle, United legend Roy Keane said on Sky Sports: “We’ve seen a big win for United. We saw all the stats before the game, when Bruno [Fernandes] is missing. So to come out and win an ugly game, from a defensive point of view keeping that clean with the amount of crosses that were going into the box, amount of times they had to clear their lines…
“There has to be pride in your defending. We’ve spoken many times over the last few months about how good United are going forward. The goal was fantastic, a special goal, a great moment for him.
“But if you really want to make progress as a football club it’s got to be about being defensively solid and keeping clean sheets. It has to be. It’s a start in terms of getting momentum for these younger players because the constant chat was about the players who were missing.
“You still have to find something. They changed their system and rolled their sleeves up towards the end. That’s part of football, surviving and hanging in there, digging out results. People go back to the teams I played in as if we played well every week.
“We didn’t. But we dug in and found results. He mentioned there about winning titles – they’re not quite ready for that but you have to start somewhere.”