Sir Alex Ferguson has admitted Manchester United must treat every game as "must-win" as they look to put pressure on Premier League leaders Chelsea.
United had fallen eight points adrift of Carlo Ancelotti's men prior to kick-off against Everton at Old Trafford on Saturday night and for half an hour they looked like the gap would prove difficult to close.
Darren Fletcher's brilliant volley ended such fears and with Michael Carrick and Antonio Valencia also finding the net after half-time, the Red Devils were able to celebrate their biggest win since August.
"We have to look at all the games as must-win now," said Ferguson.
"We need to get on a run and be somewhere near the top of the league by New Year's Day. Then, in the second half of the season we can have a real go and give ourselves a chance."
With their place in the Champions League knock-out phase secure already, Ferguson can make plenty of changes for Wednesday's encounter with Besiktas and keep his preferred team fresh for the long trip to Portsmouth on Saturday.
It is a fair bet Fletcher will be involved at Fratton Park after another fine performance.
Over the last 12 months, Fletcher's reputation has soared.
Ferguson is obviously well aware of his fellow countryman's abilities at shutting down the opposition.
But the United manager admitted Fletcher's volley took him by surprise.
"Darren is an improving player," said Ferguson.
"Each year we have seen his performance level go up and up and it is still doing so.
"But I have to admit I did not expect that goal. It was really well taken."
Ferguson was equally delighted by a clean sheet that was achieved without the talents of Rio Ferdinand, John O'Shea and Johnny Evans, who were all ruled out through injury, plus Gary Neville, who was serving the last game of a three-match suspension.
"That is probably the most important part of tonight's win," said Ferguson.
"When we defend properly and do our jobs, as we did tonight, it gives us a big chance of winning the league."
Ferguson confirmed neither Evans nor Dimitar Berbatov will be fit enough for Wednesday, although they could be available for the Portsmouth encounter.
Everton manager David Moyes admitted his side were beaten by the better side and denied he got his tactics wrong after starting the game with a lone front-man in Louis Saha, only to introduce Ayegbeni Yakubu at half-time to provide some support after his side had been completely outplayed.
"It is easy to say certain things but unless you are the manager thinking about the best formation to stop Manchester United, you can't really know," he countered.
"The fact is when we went two up front we conceded two goals, so there is no guarantee we would have done any better.
"We did not do enough to get a result and we cannot complain at the outcome."
Moyes confirmed Marouane Fellaini's fifth booking of the season means he will miss Wednesday's trip to Hull, further stretching an already injury-hit squad.
"We are struggling to get a balance to the team," he admitted.
"We are trying to find a winning formation but it has not been easy."
Patrice Evra has called on United to win every game between now and the end of the year.
"It is a good win, a great result, it was not easy against a tough team like Everton," Evra told ESPN.
"I think when we scored the second goal it killed the game and that's why we won tonight.
"It was not easy after the international break, we are a little bit tired, but I think we played with a lot of experience tonight.
"We are five points behind [Chelsea] now and we have to win every game into December now as we have already qualified in Europe and the internationals as well are finished.
"We need to focus on the league because we want to win it four times in a row."
Reflecting on Fletcher's 20-yard effort which opened the scoring, Evra added: "Fletcher is a great player and it was an unbelievable goal."
Fletcher himself was rather more humble in the appraisal of his 35th-minute goal, saying: "I just concentrated on getting a good connection on the ball and luckily it went in the back of the net."
The Scotland international added: "The Champions League is important but we've done our job in that now. It's a busy period now. It's all club, club, club, and we really need to kick on and put a run of wins together.
"Everton came and made it difficult for us, but we kept the ball and were patient and we took our chances when they came."
