Manchester United boss Louis van Gaal has revealed that he will be cheering for Chelsea to defeat Liverpool on Sunday as hopes to be guaranteed a top-four Premier League finish.

The Red Devils moved seven points ahead of Brendan Rodgers’ fifth-placed side on Saturday evening as a first-half Juan Mata penalty and a Marouane Fellaini header on 78 minutes sealed a 2-1 win against Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park.

It means already-crowned champions Chelsea can do United a huge favour by keeping their foot on the pedal and winning against the Merseysiders at Stamford Bridge, although a draw should also be enough given the far superior goal difference for Van Gaal’s men.

And the Dutch tactician revealed there would be a bottle of wine in the offing for Blues boss Jose Mourinho should his side secure a positive result.

He told Sky Sports: “There is always a bottle of wine for Jose Mourinho, but it is for us easy now to sit down and drink a beautiful glass of wine and to see how Chelsea shall beat Liverpool.”

United’s win at Palace ended a run of four successive defeats for United, while they had to overcome injuries picked up by skipper Wayne Rooney and left-back Luke Shaw which forced both out of the game.

Van Gaal, who is hopeful that neither of the duo have serious problems, said: “We had injuries, we had to change and the team was out of balance. [Phil] Jones had to play left full-back and [we lost] Wayne Rooney, our attacking point, so we have shown today what you can achieve as a team. We fought till the end and we achieved our victory.

“I don’t think we have played out best match, but we have fought to the end and it was very good to see that everybody wants to win this match because it was very important.”

Chelsea are 2.00 to win on Sunday, while Liverpool are 4.00 and the draw is 3.50.