Ralf Rangnick has revealed he reminded his Manchester United squad of how bad they felt after their defeat to Manchester City in his team talk before the 3-2 victory over Tottenham on Saturday night.
United were comprehensively outplayed by City last week, particularly in the second half, and their hopes for the season seemed to hang in the balance ahead of Spurs' visit to Old Trafford.
During a frantic game, Cristiano Ronaldo netted a hat-trick to take the Red Devils back up to fourth, two points ahead of Arsenal - who have four games in hand - and five clear of both West Ham and Tottenham.
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With the build-up to the fixture being largely dominated by United's defeat at City, Rangnick revealed he reminded his squad of the emotions they felt after that chastening loss.
He said: "Before we left the locker room, before kick-off, I said to the team everybody was gutted, frustrated, disappointed in the locker room after the derby at the Etihad.
"Today [Saturday] was the best possible day, the best possible venue, the best possible opponent in front of 75,000 to show the reaction we needed to show.
"That was the only answer we could give after that game. You can lose against Manchester City, no doubt about that, after teams lose there, but the way we played there in the second half was not Manchester United like and that was the kind of reaction we needed to show."
The top four race is somewhat skewed by the number of games certain teams have in hand. Arsenal are in pole position, though their previously postponed matches that still need to be played are against Chelsea, Spurs and Liverpool.
United still have games against Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea to compete in, but their immediate attention will turn to the second leg of their Champions League tie with Atletico Madrid as they look to secure a place in the Champions League quarter-finals.
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Source : 90min