The financially-troubled Spanish club were forced to sell prize assets David Villa and David Silva in the close season and the consensus was that they would be unable to match their third-place finish in La Liga last term.
However, new strikers Roberto Soldado and Aritz Aduriz have settled well and pacy attacking midfielders Juan Mata and Pablo Hernandez have been in sparkling form to help Unai Emery's side to the top of the domestic standings after five matches.
"Being top of the (Spanish) league is always nice but at this level it's irrelevant," Sanchez said on Valencia's website (www.valenciacf.com).
"We are on a very good run, all members of the squad feel very useful and the big beneficiary is the group but we still haven't won anything," the former Real Madrid and Tottenham Hotspur player added.
"September is not even over yet and there is a long way still to go to reach our objectives.
"We mustn't let ourselves be distracted by anything that could stop us coming out for our next match on peak form."
Valencia warmed up for Wednesday's clash at the Mestalla with a 2-0 league win at Sporting Gijon, Turkish midfielder Mehmet Topal and Soldado scoring the goals.
His return may help the 2008 winners iron out the weaknesses that have blighted recent matches and prompted Ferdinand's defensive partner Nemanja Vidic to admit they were concerned about the number of goals they were leaking.
"Over the last few years we haven't conceded many goals," he told MUTV.
"We always looked strong and we didn't give teams many chances. But in the last few away games we haven't kept clean sheets, which is very disappointing."
Manchester United: 1-Edwin van der Sar; 3-Patrice Evra, 5-Rio Ferdinand, 15-Nemanja Vidic, 22-John O'Shea; 24-Darren Fletcher, 18-Paul Scholes, 13-Park ji-Sung, 8-Anderson, 17-Nani; 9-Dimitar Berbatov.
