Giggs: Man Utd no longer looking over their shoulder - the top-four is on!

Ryan Giggs says “the top four is on for Manchester United”, with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer having helped to establish momentum and keep the Red Devils from looking over their shoulder.

Under Jose Mourinho, qualification for the Champions League appeared to be a distant dream for those at Old Trafford.

A difficult start to the 2018-19 campaign had left United well off the pace and having to contend with constant talk of internal rifts and unhappy players.

Smiles have been returned to faces under Solskjaer, though, with a former fan favourite having overseen six successive wins, and there is now just a six-point gap to be bridged in order to secure a return to Europe’s most prestigious club competition.

United legend Giggs believes a lofty finish will be secured, telling Sky Sports: “I believe the top four is on for Manchester United. Momentum is key. When you get to this part of the season and have a bit of momentum it is hard to stop.

“Chelsea are at Arsenal on Saturday, and we fancy ourselves against Brighton, so we could get even closer to Chelsea.

“If you look back a month ago it was not even on the table really so to turn it around in such a short space of time, with the games we have coming up, top four is definitely the target. Rather than looking over our shoulders we are looking up and it is great to see.”

Solskjaer has earned plenty of plaudits for the impact he has made, with a fresh approach bringing the best out of key men such as Paul Pogba and Marcus Rashford.

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Giggs has added his voice to those quick to praise the Norwegian, with the Welshman delighted to see a fellow treble winner thriving in a high-profile post.

He added: “I'm not surprised by how well Ole has done. At any level when you win six on the trot it is a fantastic achievement. Obviously everyone says they are games he should have won but there were some tricky games - Newcastle and Tottenham away for example.

“Ole has done fantastic, the players have as well, the place has been lifted. It's a different atmosphere now, I've been to a couple of games and it's been brilliant, the manner we have won them by scoring lots of goals.

“Then we had to dig a result out at Tottenham, first half we were fantastic and the second half David de Gea put on an amazing performance and we rode our luck a little bit. You have to do that to win games sometimes.”