Neil: Norwich knew what to expect from Van Gaal

Chelsea’s new interim manager Guus Hiddink watched his team beat Sunderland 3-1 on Saturday, while Norwich City won at Manchester United to imperil their manager Louis van Gaal.

Anthony Martial’s second-half strike acted as mere consolation as Norwich inflicted United’s first defeat at Old Trafford this season thanks to goals in either half from Cameron Jerome and Alexander Tettey.

United, who have not won in six games in all competitions, have slipped to fifth in the Barclays Premier League and Jose Mourinho, who left Chelsea last week, has been linked with Van Gaal’s job. “That’s happening now. I can’t close my eyes to that”.

“I know how special he is as a manager”.

Neil hopes to see his players take some confidence into the hectic festive schedule after he admitted that some recent results had left his players frustrated.

Playmaker Juan Mata feels Manchester United need to show character and strength to come out of a run of poor results after they went down 2-1 to Norwich City today. I think it became pretty glum, if you like, under David Moyes and it was unfortunate.

“That can be done when you are sticking together, not only the players, manager and staff, but also the fans, because that is very important”.

The former Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Ajax and Netherlands manager said: “I am always evaluating myself because I think that is an aspect of the philosophy I have”. “But that is what I believe”.

England defender Jones has called on Manchester United’s under-performing stars to pull together to ease the heat on Van Gaal, but even the loyalists have now turned against the Dutchman. The problem is how we can manage to come out of this bad period.

Chelsea’s fans used the match as an opportunity to take out their anger over Mourinho’s dismissal on their own players, but captain John Terry said he sympathised with them.

However, they have made a number of small changes to their style, becoming a bit less open at the back and the return of some key players in the middle of the park have made them a completely different side to the one that went through October and November without getting a win.

“It is not easy when you are a newly-promoted team and you are fighting against clubs that are far bigger than us. We weren’t playing well at the time”, Jones said.