Keep calm and carry on, Mata tells Man Utd

Dec 24, 2017 - 4:55 PM Juan Mata says Manchester United need to keep calm and kick on after another frustrating late slip-up threatened to throw their festive schedule off kilter.

Burnley arrive at Old Trafford on Boxing Day with Jose Mourinho's men reeling from back-to-back disappointments, kicked off by Bristol City knocking the holders out of the League Cup on Wednesday.

That stoppage-time winner was compounded by another late goal as Harry Maguire snatched Leicester a 2-2 draw at the death on Saturday to leave United 13 points behind Premier League leaders Manchester City.

There is no time to wallow as the games come thick and fast, with the Boxing Day visit of Burnley swiftly followed by another home match against Southampton and a trip to Everton on New Year's Day.

"You have to keep going and especially in Christmas time," Mata said.

"You play every two or three days and obviously now we feel frustrated and angry.

"But we need to keep going, rest and think about the next game - obviously with the will of finishing the game with a much better feeling."

Mourinho criticised his side's "childish" display after what felt like a pre-Christmas defeat for United.

"We didn't kill it - and we should have killed it," Mata told MUTV. "It's easy to say now.

"If we instead of drawing win at the end, we would have been saying that it was a fantastic game, that we came back and we did the most difficult thing which is to score twice after they went ahead.

"But that's football, you know, and in the last second they put the ball into the box and they scored.

"It feels like a defeat. We get a point but it feels like a defeat because we were so close to winning and we had a chance to kill the game."

United will still be without a string of first-team players as they look to get back to winning ways.

Michael Carrick and Maroaune Fellaini are out while Antonio Valencia has been struggling with a hamstring injury of late and Eric Bailly is sidelined after ankle surgery.

Source: AAP