Manchester United stat shows improvement David de Gea and defenders have made this season

Since his arrival in the summer, Erik ten Hag has been spinning plates in his attempts to improve Manchester United on all fronts.

While getting results has been his overriding priority, he has also managed to blood some of the club's youngsters as well as implement a clear set of standards for all employees at the club to adhere to.

And there has been another area of the side's game which Ten Hag has managed to significantly improve. Last season saw United keep just eight clean sheets across 38 league games.

Their porous defence was a big reason behind them posting their lowest-ever points tally in the Premier League era, as they finished sixth - 13 points adrift of the Champions League places.

Under Ten Hag however their fortunes have improved markedly. United have kept five clean sheets in their last 10 Premier League matches. It means they are just three short of last season's tally with 26 matches to play.

It is largely thanks to a new-look defence with summer signing Lisandro Martinez featuring heavily while Diogo Dalot has been transformed from a back-up player to one of the first names on the teamsheet.

Key to the latest win, a slender 1-0 victory over West Ham, was the team's doggedness and spirit according to the Dutchman. He said: "The spirit in the team is so high and reward to keep the process going. It's good to feel that fight we have together and we have to keep that going.

"In the second half (against West Ham) I have to be critical, I also said the players, we have to manage things better. But the spirit we have is fabulous, also we have the qualities to score goals and we have attacking football and the fact is we have to improve that, but if we keep going, I think we are in the right direction."