Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has hailed Paul Pogba as “one of the best attacking midfielders in the world” after he inspired Manchester United to victory at Chelsea.
The Frenchman made a goal for Ander Herrera before scoring one himself in an impressive 2-0 win at Stamford Bridge just six days after seeing red during the Champions League defeat to Paris Saint-Germain.
“It was a great response, playing against one of the best defensive midfielders in the world with [N’Golo] Kante next to him,” Solskjaer told a news conference. “We know [Pogba] is one of the best attacking midfielders in the world.
“He has vision, so the cross for Ander’s goal was fantastic. Then the way he plays the ball out to Marcus [Rashford] and gets into the box for the second was fantastic, too.”
After suffering the first defeat of Solskjaer’s reign against PSG, United responded with their first win at Stamford Bridge since 2012 to set up a FA Cup quarterfinal tie with Wolves.
“You want to see a reaction,” said Solskjaer, who has won 11 of his 13 games in charge. “The players have been brilliant in training. We were quite confident going into this game that we had found the right team selection and temperament.
“There’s a balance between being too eager after losing a game, so today was brilliant.
“We lost the final to Chelsea last year. My last game was a loss to Chelsea in the FA Cup final. Last time we beat them in the cup was 20 years ago, apparently.
“We want to get to the final. It’ll be a tough away game against Wolves, but it seems like both we and our fans love the away games. It didn’t feel like an away game with that support behind the goal.”
After wins at Tottenham, Arsenal and Chelsea, Solskjaer’s next test is against title challengers Liverpool, who play Bayern Munich in the Champions League on Tuesday, at Old Trafford on Sunday. United head into that game fourth in the Premier League table having already beaten two of their main rivals in the race for the top four — albeit in the FA Cup rather than the league.
“We’ve got to build on the positives,” said Solskjaer. “We play Liverpool next, but Chelsea, Arsenal and us will fight for that fourth position.
“There are three good teams fighting for that one position. But this was about getting through to the next round.”
