For all the acrimony involved in Manchester United’s first season under David Moyes, three wins on the bounce have them just five points outside the Top Four and eight points away from the pinnacle.

After consecutive — and historic — home losses to Everton and Newcastle, the Red Devils have found form outside Old Trafford. Wins at Aston Villa and Hull are huddled around a 3-1 home win over West Ham and Moyes’ boys start a crucial six-match stretch on Saturday at Norwich City.

“Ideally, at the back end of January I would like to be much closer to the top end than we are just now. We have to show by the end of January and beginning of February that we can get ourselves much closer to the top end of the league so that we can start to add a bit of pressure.”

After Saturday’s trip to Norwich, Manchester United will host Spurs and Swansea before a challenging trip to Stamford Bridge to face Chelsea. Then it’s home to Cardiff and away to Stoke as they open up February.

A strong run is crucial, as the club faces a late winter run that features three of five matches against Arsenal, Manchester City and Liverpool.

And still they’ll be relying on others:

“I think we’re good enough, we’re capable, we’ve got a squad of good players so we have to try and do that. We obviously need the others to make mistakes but we’ll try and do our job right. “But talk is cheap. It’s the actions that really count and we have to do that in the games that are coming up.”

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