David Moyes promises Man United will ‘hang in there’ in title race

David Moyes has promised Manchester United will “hang in there” in the Premier League title race after a poor start to the season.

The Red Devils already trail early pace-setters Arsenal by eight points after suffering three top-flight defeats in six outings, losing successive games against Manchester City and West Bromwich Albion.

Despite coming under increasing pressure after the turbulent start to the campaign, Sir Alex Ferguson’s successor is remaining upbeat about the defending champions’ chances of climbing the Premier League table.

“There is a long way to go in the Premier League,” Moyes told a pre-match news conference on Friday.

“It’s a long season. You’ll see great changes as the season goes on. We’ll hang in there and get ourselves as close to the top as soon as we can.”

United face struggling Sunderland at the Stadium of Light on Saturday, and Moyes warned the Red Devils to expect a tough game against a side which has been rejuvenated under caretaker manager Kevin Ball.

“I think I went there last season with Everton when Di Canio had just got the job and I lost in that game.

“It was probably one of the only games I lost at Everton in the last 11 or 12 games, we didn’t lose that many.

“We go up there now with a new manager again, Kevin Ball, but Kevin has been there for a while. He’s very experienced, he knows the club, he knows the players. He’ll have watched all the games and he’ll know what he has to do in this short term period.

“Whether he gets the job or not, nobody knows. Sunderland look as if they played quite well in the last couple of games.

“It’s an important game we want to win. We’ll pick a team that we think can get a result.”