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| Chelsea’s Marcos Alonso scores their first goal as Manchester United’s David de Gea looks on |
Romelu Lukaku has unwavering faith in David De Gea despite another costly mistake from the Spanish goalkeeper that left Manchester Unitedโs hopes of a Premier League top-four finish on a knife-edge.
De Gea has been at fault for a number of goals United have conceded in recent weeks, the latest coming in Sundayโs 1-1 draw against Chelsea at Old Trafford.
Antonio Rudigerโs long-distance effort should have given De Gea few alarms but the goalkeeper could only parry the ball into the path of Marcos Alonso, who stole in to cancel out Juan Mataโs opener on his 31st birthday.
The result means fourth-placed Chelsea are three points ahead of United with two fixtures of the season remaining, but Lukaku refused to apportion blame for their predicament on the highly-rated De Gea.
Echoing United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaerโs defence of De Gea, Lukaku said: โI think heโs a really positive person. He analyses really quickly what happens to him.
โHeโs been the best player at the club for seven, eight years consistently. I donโt think we should discredit him and say all of a sudden heโs a bad goalkeeper. Heโs saved us so many times this season.
โGoalkeepers always have a spell where sometimes it might go difficult. The only thing you have to do is work hard.
โI donโt know how goalkeepers get through it, Iโm not a goalkeeper, but he works hard every single day.
โWe are here to support him as players but mentally heโs really, really strong, or else he wouldnโt be the best player for seven, eight years.
โThereโs no doubt about his ability. And heโs a leader in the dressing room. Now itโs up to us as a team to help and trust in his abilities.โ
Unitedโs hopes of qualifying for next seasonโs Champions League are now out of their hands but Lukaku, who has failed to find the net in his last six starts but put in a strong showing against the Blues, remains optimistic.
The Belgian striker said: โUntil itโs done you keep believing. Itโs something thatโs in the DNA of the club.
โWe have two games where we should give our all, play good football and hope for the best.โ
The teams, as well as fifth-placed Arsenal, have suffered some indifferent recent form as the season reaches its conclusion.
That is not lost on Chelsea defender David Luiz, who is determined to secure Champions League qualification for the Blues after they were relegated to the Europa League this season.
Luiz said: โEverybody saw that the last two or three games for everybody were tough. Nobody wants to be in the top four because everybody was losing points because the other teams also need the points.
โItโs important for our club because we are a big club and big clubs want to play in the Champions League. Itโs great to be there and play against the best players in the world, the best teams. I miss it.
โBut you also have to have the humility to understand when we didnโt do the job one year before, you have to pay the consequences.โ
REUTERS
