Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal has claimed that his team must win against Crystal Palace on Wednesday or see their chances of qualifying for next season's Champions League dwindle.

The Red Devils are currently fifth in the Premier League table, four points behind Manchester City and Arsenal with five games left to play.

United have lost once in their last four top-flight fixtures, and their wins in that time all ended 1-0 for the North-West outfit.

"This game against Crystal Palace is very important," The Mirror quotes Van Gaal as saying. "We have to win, we need to win, so it's much more important to win this game than, for example, for Arsenal or Manchester City, because they have that gap of four points over us.

"We have to look to ourselves, We have to win, we must win, otherwise we cannot close the gap. They have four more points than us. We are dependant on them [dropping points], but you can only give pressure by winning.

"The most important thing is to win this game. I have already explained why, otherwise the gap is too big for the amount of matches we have left to play. I cannot predict [what will happen with other teams], that is why you have to look to yourselves and win your own games. A lot of team are losing points and we have to look to win the finishing five matches."

This weekend, United will take on Everton in the FA Cup semi-final at Wembley.