Louis van Gaal claimed that his team were lucky to get a 1-0 win over Everton on Sunday.

Manchester United kept themselves in contention for a top four place by remaining within a point of fourth placed Manchester City as a result of this win. City had put a lot of pressure on United after getting a comfortable 4-0 away victory against Bournemouth on Saturday. Since United were playing a day later, there was a lot of onus on them to keep up with City. Even though United achieved this, Van Gaal says that the result could have been a lot different.

Anthony Martial scored the only goal of the game, as both teams failed to create many chances during the game. In fact, this goal scored by United was from their only shot on target. Everton also had a similarly poor performance on the attacking front despite starting with inform striker Romelu Lukaku. The Belgian international has been linked with United in recent weeks and he has scored 25 goals for the Merseyside club in all competitions. Van Gaal has been under pressure throughout the campaign, but he may sense an opportunity to sneak into the top four.

United have another tough match against title chasing Tottenham in the next league encounter.”I think it was more or less a stolen victory. We didn’t play so well. It looked like we were not fresh enough, despite the extra days to prepare. You do not know how the players are going to come back after the international break.We scored a very good goal I have to say, and I am very happy with the victory, but they [Everton] could have scored two goals so today we were the lucky team. We had to change in the second half, and we got better,” said van Gaal.