Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal believes Chelsea and Manchester City are “frightened” of his side’s potential to make the Premier League title a three horse race.

The Red Devils consolidated their position in third place with a rampant 3-0 win over Liverpool at Old Trafford on Sunday.

It was a result which extended their winning streak to six games and also closed the gap on second-place Man City to just five points.

And, with United now “in the same neighbourhood” as the top two, the Dutch boss claims they have the confidence to contend for title 21.

“It is a great win because this was a very important match for the fans,” Van Gaal said.

“I’ve seen the happiness of the dressing room and the happiness of the board, so I’m also happy and I’m very pleased with the result because it also closes the gap between us and our competitors.

“We’re now in the same neighbourhood as Man City and Chelsea.

“They are at a higher level than us at the moment, in my opinion, but we are winning, we’ve won six times in a row

“We are showing a lot of confidence, so maybe they are a little bit frightened of us now.”

Wayne Rooney, Robin van Persie and Juan Mata were all on the scoresheet as Liverpool’s torrid run of form continues, but goalkeeper David de Gea stole the show with a series of excellent saves to deny the likes of Raheem Sterling and Mario Balotelli.

Despite the Spaniard’s heroics between the sticks, however, Van Gaal was reluctant to single out individuals after what he felt was a well deserved team win.

“Of course David De Gea had a big influence,” the Old Trafford chief added. “He did very well but other players were also very good and had a big influence.

“You can ask me every player but I don’t want to say anything about individual players, we did it with the whole team.

“Of course Michael Carrick did very well. We did it with a British defence today – I said an English defence but I was corrected by Jonny Evans, he’s an Irish boy.”