Manchester United can still win the league, says Phil Jones
Saturday 2 January 2016 17:52, UK
Phil Jones says Manchester United can still win the league even though they are on their worst run of form in 26 years.
United will stretch their winless sequence to nine matches in all competitions if they fail to beat Swansea at Old Trafford on Saturday, with the poor run of results seeing Louis van Gaal's team drop out of the top four and exit the Champions League.
Despite being nine points behind leaders Arsenal, Jones believes the Premier League is so unpredictable this year that he and his team-mates can still challenge for the title.
"It's strange but the table shows that literally anyone can win the league this season. Arsenal, Chelsea, Leicester, [Manchester] City, ourselves, Tottenham, Stoke, Watford - nobody seems to want to win it," the United defender told MUTV.
"It only takes a good run of five, six, seven games and getting a few wins and it soon turns around. We're disappointed with the way we've played over the past few games, although we did well against Chelsea, but by no means are we out of [the title race].
"If we can put a few wins together we'll be right back up there."
There were real signs of encouragement in United's performance against Chelsea on Monday, but the home side had to rely on David de Gea to pull off three fantastic saves, with Nemanja Matic also shooting well over when through on goal.
However, Jones is proud of United's defensive record this season, with 10 clean sheets in 19 games.
"I was always taught as a youngster that if you keep a clean sheet you've got a great chance of winning the game and we've done that more often than not this season," he said.
"Norwich and Stoke were games in which we conceded sloppy goals, but other than those matches we've been pretty solid. Everyone who's played has done their job and we hope we can carry that on and produce more clean sheets."
Jones has had to spend most of the season on the substitutes' bench or in the treatment room thanks largely to the form of Chris Smalling and ex-Ajax star Daley Blind.
Former United left-back Denis Irwin thinks Blind, whose favourite position is in midfield, has done a good job in defence this season.
"The two centre-halves have been our best players this year," said Irwin. "Chris Smalling has been getting all the limelight but I would say the unsung hero so far this season is Daley Blind, we haven't conceded that many and he has been a big part of that.
"He reads the game well and he is a very good footballer as well."
