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Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has provided his full backing for David de Gea after the Manchester United keeper's latest blunder allowed Chelsea to score during Sunday's 1-1 draw.

United put themselves a goal to the good after Juan Mata opened the scoring ten minutes into the clash, but the Red Devils were pegged back just before the half-time interval when De Gea spilled Antonio Rudiger's effort into the path of the onrushing Marcos Alonso.

It's the latest in a succession of mistakes for De Gea but, when asked if he should have been left out of the starting XI, Solskjaer responded (via The Guardian): “No. David has been a fantastic keeper at this club, his reaction after Manchester City was good and I was confident in him. 

"He knows he could do better with their goal but it’s one of those things again.

"David has been unbelievable. We do support each other. There is no chance anyone can blame him for losing points. He knows he could have had that shot but that is football. David is one who likes to play games and I will have chats with him and he will respond in the right way.

"Of course I’ll sit down and speak to David as I’ve done when he’s played well – he’s not the reason why we are sixth.”

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United have now won just two of their previous ten games and, when asked to provide an explanation for the worrying run of form, the Norwegian boss explained: “It’s because we’re challenging against good teams.

“Maybe it’s been inconsistency. Against Chelsea we were flying, creating chances on the front foot, and everyone was very pleased with the performance. But the second half was just a scrappy game, we never got the quality from either team.”