Gary Neville has been delighted by the stylish football United
have displayed so far this season.
The Reds go into this weekend's clash with Chelsea three points
clear of the champions, and have the happy marriage of being the
Premiership's top scorers and tightest defenders.
The manner with which United have set about regaining the
Premiership title for the first time in three seasons has been
especially pleasing to the club captain.
"Our performance levels are much better," said Neville. "I don't
think at any point in the first six months of last season did we
reach the performance levels we have shown this season.
"It's been a higher level of football and we've blown teams off the
park with quick attacking play, two wide players, two centre
forwards, and we've blitzed teams in 20-30 minute periods.
"Bolton and Portsmouth are examples of that, and that's when I feel
we're at our best, when we're playing at a high tempo and
everything is quick."
As a defender, it would be easy to expect Neville to concentrate on
keeping United's goals-against column as low as possible. But he
places great stock in the United mantra of entertaining
football.
"Defensively we've been okay but more importantly we've
looked good going forward," said Neville. "We pride ourselves on
that. "We're creating chances and the fans can see we're playing
good football. Everyone is happy at the moment and we've just got
to maintain that.
"We never got to that level in the first six months of last season
but we did show that form towards the end of it, and that's
continued into the first part of this season. So we've produced it
now for the best part of 10 months."
It is that level of consistency which Neville believes can secure
United the Premiership title, having seen Arsenal and Chelsea take
the prize with such steadiness over the last three years.
"Consistency is where the league has been won in the last two or
three seasons by Arsenal and then Chelsea," said Neville. "They've
both been more consistent than us.
"This season we have got to keep up that consistency level, keep on
winning matches. We've won seven on the run now but we've got to
turn that into 10, 12 or 14 wins on the trot."
