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Man United star Zlatan Ibrahimovic: I conquered the Premier League in three months
ZLATAN IBRAHIMOVIC claims he has already conquered English football and that it only took him three months.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic reckons he conquered the Premier League in just three months
And having declared that achievement, the outspoken Manchester United striker has now set his sights on catching Chelsea in the Premier League title race.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic is set to return for United when they host Liverpool on Sunday in the weekend's outstanding top-flight fixture.
The former Sweden international missed Tuesday's EFL Cup semi-final first-leg win over Hull because of illness, and his comeback would prove a significant boost for Jose Mourinho's side as they seek to extend a nine-match winning run.
Ibrahimovic, 35, had a mixed start to life in the Premier League, having arrived on a free transfer in July after his contract with Paris St-Germain expired.
Ibrahimovic has scored 13 league goals already this season
He endured a six-match goal drought in the autumn, his longest since December 2007, but recovered in style, and has scored 12 times in his last 12 appearances.
Indeed, the striker completed the calendar year with a total of 50 goals in all competitions for club and country, a total bettered only by Barcelona great Lionel Messi.
Yet Ibrahimovic says he has no interest in personal goal targets or in catching front-runner Diego Costa in the race for the Premier League's Golden Boot, because he has nothing to prove on a personal level.
He said: "I have no individual targets because that I did already, after three months in England. I conquered England - it took three months."
Ibrahimovic is one goal behind Chelsea's Diego Costa in the race for the golden boot
Ibrahimovic has 13 league goals for the season, one fewer than Chelsea's Costa in the contest to finish as the top flight's leading scorer.
While that gap looks surmountable, a far more difficult test lies in catching Costa's team in the title race. United, despite their winning run, are 10 points behind a Chelsea side who recorded 13 sucessive league wins before they were beaten at Tottenham nine days ago.
Ibrahimovic, though, is certain that the deficit can be made up. "I'm chasing the head trophy - the Premier League," he said. "That is my aim.
"The individual things come as part of the main objective because that is like a bonus for every individual player. If the collective does well, then the individuals will do well."