Cape Town - Manchester United defender Chris Smalling believes the Red Devils are on course to secure a top-four finish in this season's English Premiership.
New manager Louis van Gaal did not enjoy the brightest of starts to his Old Trafford tenure, but his side have slowly started to find their feet, with Saturday's 2-1 victory over Arsenal lifting United to fourth in the standings.
A return to the Champions League awaits should the Red Devils remain in the top four and Smalling feels this is very much within their reach, with his side ready to kick on from their Emirates Stadium success.
"Given the manager and the players we have got, we should be playing better than we are, with more points," Football411 quotes him as saying.
"But we have a good base now with an away win and now we can go back to Old Trafford and build on that.
"We showed a lot of character, we did not play that well and we will go through the video to see what we could have done better, but it will be on the back of having taken three points," he added.
"We have to take each game as it comes, that is our first away win. We know we have two home games coming up, and we need six points, then we can have a look at where we are in the table. We need to win our games.
"The manager has said we worked hard and we need to make sure we take maximum points from our next two home games, then we can look at it from there. The top four is always a minimum for this club.
New manager Louis van Gaal did not enjoy the brightest of starts to his Old Trafford tenure, but his side have slowly started to find their feet, with Saturday's 2-1 victory over Arsenal lifting United to fourth in the standings.
A return to the Champions League awaits should the Red Devils remain in the top four and Smalling feels this is very much within their reach, with his side ready to kick on from their Emirates Stadium success.
"Given the manager and the players we have got, we should be playing better than we are, with more points," Football411 quotes him as saying.
"But we have a good base now with an away win and now we can go back to Old Trafford and build on that.
"We showed a lot of character, we did not play that well and we will go through the video to see what we could have done better, but it will be on the back of having taken three points," he added.
"We have to take each game as it comes, that is our first away win. We know we have two home games coming up, and we need six points, then we can have a look at where we are in the table. We need to win our games.
"The manager has said we worked hard and we need to make sure we take maximum points from our next two home games, then we can look at it from there. The top four is always a minimum for this club.