Manchester United striker Romelu Lukaku has insisted that the atmosphere inside the squad is "great" ahead of Sunday's Premier League showdown with Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.
United have lost just one of their last 16 matches across all competitions to sit on the verge of Champions League qualification and second in the Premier League, although they trail local rivals Manchester City by five points.
Lukaku himself began the season with 11 goals in his opening 10 games for the club before an ongoing drought which has seen him fail to find the back of the net in his last six outings, but he insists that he pays no attention to criticism from the outside.
"The stats are good. We started the season really well, we played at a high tempo, scored a lot of goals and were good both defensively and offensively. Then sometimes some performances were not at the same tempo. We always find a way to win the game but a season is a lot of ups and downs. The most important thing is to keep the consistency of winning games," he told Sky Sports News.
"We dropped points against Stoke and Huddersfield, Huddersfield was really disappointing. We did not perform like we have to perform. We have to move on quickly from that and we did. Now it is up to us to keep performing and chase Man City. We had negative press from the start of the season. We were beating teams 4-0, 4-0, 4-0 but people were saying, 'We didn't play the big teams yet, we didn't do this or that yet'. The reality is we keep performing.
"We cannot put our focus on what happens outside, we have to focus on ourselves and stick to the task. We have to play attractive football, score goals and win games. That's our task. What happens outside could create pressure between teammates, maybe the atmosphere would not be good.
"The atmosphere in our team is great, we have a lot of young, hungry players and experienced players who have a young mind as well, so everybody is in a groove right now. We work hard in training and win the game on Saturday. That's something we have to build on. As long as we do that I don't think we should focus on what the outside world is saying."
United travel to Stamford Bridge on Sunday having won just once away to Chelsea since 2002.
Barney Corkhill
