Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal has said that the club's improvement in form this season is down to selling a large number of players in the summer transfer window and rebuilding the squad.
The Red Devils moved to the top of the table for the first time since the Dutchman took over from David Moyes in May 2014 after beating Sunderland 3-0 on Saturday to make it three wins in a row in the Premier League.
Van Gaal insisted that his decision to allow players such as British record signing Angel di Maria, Robin van Persie and on-loan Radamel Falcao to leave the club in the summer has had a big role in the upturn in success.
"You need luck, but the balance of the team is better than last season," he told The Mirror. "I do not see it every week, but I see that we are better as a team and a selection.
"I rotate more now because I can. Last year in my opinion I did not have the balance. I have let 20 or 25 players go, so it is a new team. [The players] have to build up a structure in the dressing room and that is really important.
"They have to accept that structure, and that is why I [sell players] every season. Every season I shall do that, because I think that we need that new stimulus."
United face last season's Bundesliga runners-up Wolfsburg at Old Trafford in their second Champions League group stage game on Wednesday night.
Tom Nightingale
