‘Possibly’—Ayden Heaven Makes Bold Man Utd Prediction For Second Half of Season

Man Utd sit sixth in the Premier League table after 18 games played.

Ayden Heaven has lofty ambitions for the Red Devils. / Molly Darlington/Copa/Getty Images

Manchester United defender Ayden Heaven made an ambitious statement off the back of his player of the match performance in Friday night’s win over Newcastle United, refusing to rule out a Premier League title challenge in the second half of the season.

Despite lacking consistency in 2025–26, Ruben Amorim’s team have dramatically improved since last season marked the club’s lowest ebb in half a century.

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Prior to this weekend’s fixtures, only Manchester City had outscored the Red Devils through the first 17 Premier League games of the campaign. Scoring goals was the team’s main weakness last term.

Now, only a lack of defensive resilience has prevented them from climbing higher up the table—high-scoring draws against Nottingham Forest, Tottenham Hotspur (both 2–2) and Bournemouth (4–4) account for six points arguably left on the pitch. Six extra points would have them in the top three, just five points off the pace at the top of the table.

The Newcastle game represented just a second clean sheet this season, and a first since winning 2–0 against Sunderland in October. Heaven, still only 19 and impressively covering the injury absences of Harry Maguire and Matthijs de Ligt, starred against Newcastle when the clean sheet was a crucial factor in securing maximum points without chief creators Bruno Fernandes, Bryan Mbeumo and Amad Diallo, perhaps the three most important players in the squad.

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A top six or possible top seven finish is likely to be enough to qualify for European competition of some kind next season after missing out altogether in 2025–26. That is the minimum target for the remainder of the campaign, but Heaven has refused to put a ceiling on what United could achieve.

“I think as Manchester United, we belong in Europe,” Heaven, 19, said postgame.

“We want to get back [in Europe] next season. So, we can even push for top four, possibly win the league, anything’s possible. We want to keep trying.”

Consistency is going to be key to anything United achieve over the coming months, with consecutive wins over Sunderland, Liverpool and Brighton & Hove Albion in October the only time that the team has emerged triumphant in back-to-back league games since Ruben Amorim arrived 14 months ago.

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Heaven Set for Extended Run in Man Utd’s Starting XI

Heaven is becoming “really hard” to dislodge from the lineup. / Ash Donelon/Manchester United/Getty Images

Heaven looks like he could have a significant role to play. The former Arsenal academy player had played only 28 minutes of Premier League football this season until suddenly starting each of the last five games—Noussair Mazraoui is also currently unavailable alongside Maguire and De Ligt.

“I’m really pleased with ­Ayden, you can feel he improving every game,” Amorim said in response to the youngster’s performance against Newcastle. “He’s young, but you don’t feel that he has a good game and then he slows the game or the thinking during the game. Now, you feel that improved.

“He’s improving during the game. I think he was not playing, but he trained really well. You just need to train really well to be ready when the opportunity comes. So, in this moment, if you continue to play like that, it’s going to be really hard to take his place.”

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