Jesse Lingard believes Manchester United's "massive" win over Watford on Saturday has sent a message to their Premier League title rivals.
Louis van Gaal's side took an early lead at Vicarage Road but Troy Deeney's late penalty looked to have snatched a draw for the home side in the closing stages, until the striker inadvertantly turned Bastian Schweinsteiger's cut-back into his own net in the 90th minute.
"It's massive," he told the club's official website. "It's a bit of a statement to the other teams, who will look at this and see we've won. It puts a bit more pressure on them, but it's a good feeling to be back up there.
"It was a great way to end the game. I thought it was a scrappy match overall, the conditions didn't help, but we had to keep our concentration throughout and it's great to get the win.
"There are a lot of games coming up, we've got a lot of injuries at the moment and have to adapt to that, I thought we did that well today. As long as we win as many games as we can over Christmas, I think we'll be fine."
