Noussair Mazraoui believes Manchester United have too much quality to be in such a lowly spot in the Premier League standings and deserved to beat Chelsea.
A week that started with Erik ten Hag’s sacking ended with caretaker manager Ruud van Nistelrooy overseeing a battling 1-1 draw at Old Trafford as incoming head coach Ruben Amorim watched from afar.
Moises Caicedo’s cracker cancelled out a Bruno Fernandes penalty in a performance that showed signs of promise but could not stop United recording their worst points haul after 10 matches since 1986-87.
The Red Devils sit 13th with just three victories and 12 points, with summer signing Mazraoui saying they must now start showing their true quality on a consistent basis.
“We fought really hard,” the full-back told MUTV. “But I think eventually if you look at the game and the chances we created, we deserve to win.
“I think if you look at the table where we are now, you cannot say that’s where we belong. Everybody knows that. We know that.
“We have to step up and get away from there really, really fast because, yeah, that’s just not us.
“You see that (against Chelsea). We have too much of a quality to be there in this position.”
Van Nistelrooy shared a similar view to Mazraoui, saying the Chelsea draw and Carabao Cup win against Leicester showed a foundation of “spirit and fight” that means “Football qualities will come out” at United.
But Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca believes the fighting spirit overstepped the mark late on, when he felt Lisandro Martinez should have been sent off for a challenge on Cole Palmer.
Asked if the match was at times too physical, Mazraoui said: “I don’t agree. No, no, not too physical. I think it was really passionate from both sides.
“I think for the supporters a great game to watch, even though there were just two goals in there. I think an amazing game to watch from everybody.”
United now host PAOK looking for a first Europa League win of the campaign and then welcome Leicester in the Premier League on Sunday – the day before Amorim officially takes the reins.
Chelsea, meanwhile, play Armenian outfit Noah and London rivals Arsenal at Stamford Bridge, with defender Levi Colwill having mixed emotions after the young side’s draw at Old Trafford.
‘I think the team are very frustrated,” the Blues centre-back said. “Where we are in the season, the football we’ve been playing, like today at times, we deserve to win most games.
“I want to win every game so I was bit disappointed that we didn’t. It was obviously a tough one out there and they had threats and that’s how they scored.
“We know what we’re building, we know how good we are, how good we can be and how good we’ve been this season.
“At times in this game we played good football, created good chances, but if you don’t take the chances it keeps them in the game and they get a sniff. That’s what happened.”
Morocco
