Ole Gunnar Solskjaer plots next step as Man Utd make up ground on Mauricio Pochettino's Tottenham

Solskjaer got the better of Pochettino at Wembley
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Ole Gunnar Solskjaer plans to pile the misery on Mauricio Pochettino in his bid to beat the Tottenham manager to the Manchester United job.

Solskjaer has set his side the target of overtaking Spurs in the Premier League after winning his personal duel with Pochettino on Sunday.

The Norwegian won his sixth straight game since taking over at Old Trafford last month, leaving Wembley with a 1-0 victory.

Pochettino remains the overwhelming favourite to be appointed Jose Mourinho’s permanent successor at the end of the season, but executive vice chairman Ed Woodward will come under increasing pressure to hand the job to Solskjaer if he continues his incredible run.

While the 1999 Treble-winning hero refused to address his battle with with Tottenham’s manager, he knows his chances will be hugely boosted if he can lead United to a higher finish than their London rivals.

In Pictures | Tottenham vs Man Utd | 13/01/2019

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“This game was never about me or him, never,” said Solskjaer. “For us, it’s three points and we had to beat them today if we have a chance to catch them.

“We were 10 points behind them, now we’re now seven. And seven points, that’s catchable. Thirteen, impossible - 10 difficult. Now we have a chance.

“I’m just doing my job every single day here, until the contract runs out end of June.”

Marcus Rashford’s first-half strike was enough to secure the win for United, who had to rely on the brilliance of David De Gea, who pulled off 11 saves after the break to deny Spurs.

Solskjaer added: “The win here was massive, the team spirit was massive, the belief and the joy in the dressing room absolutely fantastic.

“We’ve been away for a week working on certain things and when the boys see the benefits of that work, both fitness and maybe tactical, it’s massive - and results like this against big teams, they do give you confidence.

Getty Images

“It’s a tough venue to come to. Spurs are flying at the moment, they score goals, they’ve got some fantastic players and we defended really well.

“We had a fantastic goalkeeper obviously.

“In the second-half we made hard work of it, maybe ourselves, as they created many, many chances, but first-half was spot on.”

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