Smalling’s sights on high-point finish

MANCHESTER United have kick–started their faltering season, with Chris Smalling now plotting a fourth straight win and a shot at FA Cup glory.

Louis van Gaal’s position came under renewed scrutiny after the recent 3–0 humbling at Tottenham, yet his players have rallied impressively.

Overcoming West Ham in last week’s FA Cup last-eight replay started a turnaround which continued with back–to–back Premier League wins at home to Aston Villa and Crystal Palace.

The midweek 2–0 win over the Eagles moved United within a point of the top four, and two behind rivals Manchester City, and increased the confidence within the camp ahead of tomorrow’s semi–final clash with Everton at Wembley.

“I think we’ve done exactly what we’ve needed to do,” Smalling said.

“It’s about having Arsenal and City looking over their shoulder and we’ve put a bit more pressure on.

“I am looking forward to tomorrow. It’s a great occasion and hopefully we do the job there, get back there again and get two visits.”

Damien Delaney’s own goal and a fine Matteo Darmian strike did the damage against Palace, but United would have travelled to Wembley buoyed by a grand scoreline were it not for some poor finishing and goalkeeper Julian Speroni’s inspired display.

“I think it was a big improvement on Saturday and we controlled it from the start to the finish,” Smalling told MUTV.

“We created a lot more chances so now we’ve got that good feeling going into tomorrow.

“I think we control a lot of the games at Old Trafford, but we can sometimes find it difficult to break down teams.

“But getting the early goal, you can see the amount of chances we created after that.”

By contrast, much–changed Palace failed to really threaten United and Everton will do well to break down a defence that has collected 17 clean sheets in 34 league matches.

Smalling has been key to that sturdiness, so there was understandable concern inside Old Trafford when he took a blow towards the end of the game.

However, the now- established England international has allayed concerns that it could be a problem this weekend.

“Yeah I’ll be fine,” Smalling said.

“It was just a 50/50 challenge and he has just caught me after, but it’s nothing serious.”

Crystal Palace are sweating on key defender Scott Dann’s fitness ahead of their FA Cup semi–final clash with Watford on Sunday.