After a slow start to life in the Premier League under Jose Mourinho, Manchester United finally seem to have found their feet and after their most recent 2-0 win over Watford, they have extended their unbeaten run in the Premier League to 16 games and Juan Mata has been central to their success so far.
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When Jose Mourinho joined Manchester United, Juan Mata was not expected to play a really big role at the club considering Mourinho was the one that decided to sell him while they were together at Chelsea and now the former Valencia man is thriving under him.
Juan Mata has already matched his goal tally in the Premier League from last season after he opened the scoring against Watford over the weekend, but the Spaniard had the most unusual of celebrations as he decided to throw his boot in the air. Mata said that the goal was a nice collective play and the reason he threw his boot up in the air was because it was already off.
"It was a nice collective play that I was able to finish with my left foot while my right boot was coming off. When I run to celebrate the goal with my team-mates the boot was already off... so I just took it and threw it in the air. You don't really know what you're doing when you score... Anyway, I read that my celebration had been premeditated, but it wasn't, although I'm sure my friends from Adidas did like it," Juan Mata wrote on his blog.
Manchester United don't play in the Premier League until March 4 when they take on Bournemouth, but they still have a lot of important matches coming up in February including their Europa League clash against Saint-Etienne and the EFL cup final against Southampton.
Juan Mata has called on his teammates to focus ahead of their Europa League match saying they have to get the best possible result in the first leg at Old Trafford and must keep moving forward in the competition. He continued by talking about their FA Cup tie against Blackburn Rovers saying his team takes the competition very seriously and being the defending champions they will have to.
"The best thing to do is to focus on the first game, that's the most important one right now. We have to get the best possible result at Old Trafford against Saint-Etienne. What matters, though, is that they are currently one of the best teams in their country and they have overcome a really tough group in the Europa League. We are looking forward to this tie and to keep moving forward in the competition," Juan Mata said.
"Then, on the weekend, we will visit Blackburn Rovers in the FA Cup, another historic team. On Sunday we want to show how much we care about the FA Cup and make it to the next round," he added.
Meanwhile, Deportivo Alaves who are currently 12th in the La Liga table have shocked the world after they reached the final of the Copa Del Rey where they will take on Barcelona as they look to win their first major trophy.
While Barcelona will be clear favorites to win the trophy after they defeated Alaves 6-0 in the La Liga recently, Juan Mata says it's more like the FA Cup when it comes as no surprise that a smaller team reached the final of a cup competition. He congratulated the people of Alaves because he knows how rare it is to make it to the final of the competition for such a small team.
"We've just found out who is going to play the Cup final. I have to highlight that Alaves, a humble club, will be fighting for the title against Barcelona. I'd say it looks more like the FA Cup, when it's not unusual to see a team like Alaves battling in the last few rounds. Congratulations to the people of Vitoria, I know this kind of achievements are very special in a relatively small city like this one."
