Manchester United manager Erik Ten Hag has allegedly claimed that the Premier League competition is beyond just Manchester City and Arsenal.
This season has seen Mikel Arteta's men stay at the top of the table for most of the season while Pep Guardiola's keeps playing catch up in the title race. Arsenal are five points ahead of City, while Manchester United recently blew open a 16-point gap following their 0-0 draw with Southampton.
Manchester United's manager Erik Ten Hag, however, believes that the title race is not a two-horse race but rather one that involves around six or seven teams in the Premier League.
Speaking during his press conference ahead of the Red Devils' second leg tie against Real Betis in the Europa League round of 16, he stressed that seven other teams will be ready to challenge for the number one spot before the end of the season and explained that the Premier League has become more difficult in recent times.
"You see the competition," he began.
"I also heard comments from other players and other managers in the Premier League." The Premier League was never as difficult as it is now because there are so many competitors. It is not a two-horse race. "It's five, six, seven-horse races, so you have to be very good if you want to win that league," he stated ascertainingly.
"But we are aiming for that. We want six or seven more clubs. And they will invest, and they will spend a lot of money. And they have great managers, so they have great players. "So it’s a lot about details in the end, and you can win it."
"But as I said," he added. "We have beaten all the teams in the Premier League, so we are capable of doing it, but we are aware of it at the club and also in the team." "We are aware of it; we have some steps to go."
Erik Ten Hag was further questioned about his own side being far from being referred to as title challengers, and the Dutch manager went ahead to highlight the progress made by his team this season.
"I think we have made good progress." "We also have to acknowledge that there is still a gap," he said.
"I couldn’t expect that we would close that gap so quickly. What we want is to win every game, no matter the opponent. I think in all of the games you have seen till now, that has been our approach. We tried to win every game. Also, we have beaten all the top teams, so we are capable of doing it. So now we have to make the next step to do that more dominant, more consistent."
"So we have some steps to take." But we know there is time, and we can do it."
Erik Ten Hag went on to acknowledge that his side could still embark on another unbeaten run for the third time this season; fans and media appear to be in anticipation of this following the Red Devils' 7-0 loss at Anfield some weekends ago. The manager believes his side can pull off such a feat again before the season runs out.
"We have done it after Brentford, and we have done it after City, so we are capable of it." But now we have to show it again, and don’t think too far ahead. We have to think about games one by one. "That is the base of our success," Erik Ten Hag explained.
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