English Premier League: Alex Ferguson has been known to refer to the City of Manchester stadium as the "Temple of Doom" but it is not a description he is in a position to use ahead of tomorrow's Mancunian derby.

It is only a week since Ferguson was talking about it being "imperative to start winning from the word go" but after seeing his side fail to win either of their opening two fixtures, against Reading and Portsmouth, the Manchester United manager found himself in the bizarre position yesterday of having to discuss whether such a poor start could be a decisive factor in this season's title race.

United are four points behind City but it will be of far more concern to Ferguson that as Chelsea have established the same gap, with victories over Birmingham and Reading, Wayne Rooney has been ruled out for two months with a broken foot.

Cristiano Ronaldo will also be conspicuous by his absence until mid-September, as he serves a three-match ban for headbutting Portsmouth's Richard Hughes.

Ferguson, however, is entitled to believe United's position is "recoverable" and to back up his argument he pointed out that they had also dropped points against Reading and Portsmouth when winning the title last season.

"There are different ways of looking at it," he said. "We know our first win is just around the corner. We are confident of that because the ability of the team is obvious."

It has, nonetheless, been a galling week for Ferguson and United's fans will not take confidence from his assertion that the team might encounter more problems against the league's smaller clubs.

"The league is getting more competitive," said Ferguson. "This is the only place you can make money so you can understand, for instance, why West Ham have spent so much on new players. Portsmouth have done a lot of buying to make sure they stay up and for Roy Keane at Sunderland it has been desperate stuff trying to get players up there. When you see Sunderland and Newcastle have spent so much, and Middlesbrough spending €8.8 million on Mido, it's not to win the league; it's to stay in it.

"Everyone is strengthening and that means the league will become more compact and more points will be taken off the top teams. It is possible that a team will win the league with fewer than 90 points."

Tomorrow's game is the first time Ferguson has come face to face with Sven-Goran Eriksson since their fall-out over Rooney's fitness at the World Cup, and the United manager was not entirely complimentary about his old adversary. Informed that Eriksson had a bottle of wine for him, Ferguson replied: "If he gives it to me as a present I'll accept it but I am not going to be sharing it with him. I'll take it home."

Meanwhile, Chelsea will attempt to deflate the early-season optimism at Liverpool tomorrow to extend their own impressive run of form, with Claudio Pizarro admitting that he and his team-mates have been surprised at the start made to the season by Manchester United.

Jose Mourinho's side travel to Merseyside aiming for a third successive win that, should United lose to City, could see Chelsea enjoying a seven-point advantage over their rivals following the game at Anfield. Even at this early stage of the campaign, that would represent a daunting gap for the champions to bridge.

"The gap is already an advantage for us, and it's important," said Pizarro, who has impressed since his free transfer from Bayern Munich. "United are another of the teams who want to fight for the Premier League title, so it's important for us to stay in front of them. It's been surprising seeing United's results so far. I thought they'd win their games, but they haven't, which is good for us."

Chelsea lost at Anfield last season, albeit without their first-choice centre-halves. John Terry will return for this game after a knee injury, with Mourinho considering reverting to the 4-3-3 formation that has been so effective on previous visits to Liverpool. That scenario may mean a return to the bench for Pizarro, who denied claims from Reading's coaching staff that he had feigned injury on Wednesday night in the incident that saw the home side's Kalifa Cisse dismissed on his debut.

"Of course he kicked me," said Pizarro. "If I hadn't pulled my leg away, I'd have broken it. English football is hard, very tough, but it was like that also in Germany."

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