Tottenham travel to Old Trafford on Monday night for their third Premier League game of the campaign against Manchester United.
And Mauricio Pochettino’s men will be looking to build on their 100 per cent record so far after victories against Newcastle and Fulham. Manchester United, meanwhile, have endured a slower start after narrowly beating Leicester before losing dismally 3-2 at Brighton on Sunday.
Jose Mourinho needs a reaction from his players, but all is not well at the club with speculation continuing around the manager’s long-term future. Fred only joined two months ago for £52m from Shakhtar Donetsk, however, it has not been the happiest of times for the Brazil international.
Having gone straight into United’s first XI off the back of the World Cup in Russia, Fred has plenty of responsibility already in the team.
And he is fully aware if the Red Devils plan to compete with Liverpool and Manchester City this term, Tottenham cannot come to Old Trafford and take three points.
“It’s a very important game,” Fred said.
“This week we’ve been working, focusing on this game, we want to go out and get the win in front of our home fans.
“We know Tottenham are a great team but we need to get the win if we are to aspire to win the league. The Premier League is a great league and there are a lot of great teams and Brighton were better than Man United. They got early goals which we didn’t manage to achieve, we improved but unfortunately this wasn’t enough for a win or a draw.”
Fred and his Manchester United team-mates struggled badly at Brighton in their 3-2 loss
On working with his new manager, Fred added: ”I’m really happy to be working with Jose Mourinho he’s a great person and he’s always keen to communicate with the squad and help people to be communicative regarding what they’re to do on the pitch.
“I’m really happy to be working with him and I hope that I’ll be working for him for a while to come. I’ve got lots of objectives in the short term, the league, the Champions League and the domestic cups. I want to win these competitions and in the long term I want to win lots of trophies and I want to gain recognition from the fans and I’d love to leave a mark here and I’d love to leave a legacy at Manchester United.”
Fred is expected to start in the middle on Monday again alongside Paul Pogba, with Andreas Pereira likely to continue there too while Nemanja Matic recovers from injury.