Crystal Palace 0-0 Manchester United: LVG bemoans another draw and revels key requirement for title challenge

Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal has admitted that he is disappointed with his team's performance in the last three weeks despite the Red Devils taking five points from a possible nine. The Old Trafford club beat Everton 3-0 and drew 0-0 with Manchester City and Crystal Palace maintaining three clean sheets in the process.

The Dutch manager, however, is unimpressed and believes that they need to win games against the likes of Palace if they want to challenge for the Premier League title. Arsenal, who beat Swansea City 3-0 at the Liberty Stadium are now joint leaders alongside City, and are four points clear of United in the fourth place. Van Gaal cited the Gunners' performance, as an example, since United had lost away from home to the south Wales club in August.

"No, I am not happy because if you want to be the champions, you have to win these kinds of matches. Arsenal beat Swansea, for example. We lost against Swansea, even though we were the better team, but they have beaten them 3-0," Van Gaal told United's official site.

The former Bayern Munich and Barcelona manager is also at a loss to explain his team's lack of goals in recent weeks, as they have failed to score a single goal in their last three encounters in the Premier League and the League Cup. Against the Eagles on Saturday (31 October) the Red Devils managed just one shot on target during the course of the entire 90 minutes, leaving the manager frustrated. Van Gaal has called on his team to recover ahead of their next game against CSKA Moscow in the Champions League on Tuesday, and end their goal drought.

"I cannot do anything anymore because we cannot train: we can only recover and recover. We have to score in the next match and then everybody will be happy again, and especially against CSKA Moscow it is very important to score," the Dutchman added.