Ole Gunnar Solskjaer admitted he is worried Manchester United’s luck might run out after they scraped past West Ham United on Saturday evening.
Paul Pogba’s brace bailed out United as the Red Devils stuttered to a fortuitous 2-1 win at OId Trafford.
Tuesday’s huge Champions League quarter-final challenge in Barcelona looms large, but attention first turned to securing a return to European football’s top table next season.
“You want to win games, especially at this stage of the season, you know that points are so vital,” Solskjaer said.
“We know we didn’t perform and we know we should perform better, but we’ve got away with three points.
United moved within two points of the top four as a pair of Pogba penalties sealed victory at Old Trafford, but those in attendance will know how fortunate Solskjaer’s side were to have secured a point, never mind three.
Felipe Anderson saw an early opener wrongly ruled out for offside, but the Brazilian cancelled out Pogba’s contentiously-awarded penalty shortly after half-time as the Hammers capitalised on David De Gea’s poor throw.
The United goalkeeper made amends as Manuel Pellegrini’s men pushed for a winner, producing an outstanding one-handed save from Michail Antonio shortly after the West Ham substitute rattled the goalframe.
Yet the visitors returned to the capital empty-handed after Pogba smashed home his second spot-kick to keep up United’s top-four charge on an evening when the performance clearly alarmed Solskjaer.