ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE Manchester Utd v Tottenham:ALEX FERGUSON has warned Chelsea his Manchester United players are "lifted and charged up" by moving within a point of the Premier League leaders but he also recognised the dangers posed by Tottenham at Old Trafford today when he described them as the best team from White Hart Lane he had seen in quarter of a century in English football.
After beating Arsenal and Chelsea in their last two matches, Harry Redknapp’s fourth-placed team head to Manchester in what Ferguson described as “championship form”. But the United manager is convinced that Paul Scholes’s stoppage-time winner against Manchester City last weekend has given the champions new impetus.
“There has been a lift in the camp this week,” he said. “There has been always a great atmosphere in our training over the years but then you get a lift like last week and the change is very noticeable. It’s been very competitive. The players are lifted and charged up. I trust them and I hope they can do it for me again.”
With three games to play, United are a point behind Chelsea and also have an inferior goal difference, 51 to 54, but Ferguson believes it could be a telling psychological advantage if his team can move two points clear by the time Carlo Ancelotti’s side host Stoke City tomorrow.
“Chelsea have a lot of experienced players but pressure does come into it at this kind of year. Some players will get nervy, no question about that. It happens.”
United’s manager was referring to Chelsea’s defeat at Tottenham last Saturday on the back of Scholes’s late winner at Eastlands. “Last weekend has helped to lift us,” he said. “When Scholes scored I was resigned to the game finishing nil-nil. It would have been very difficult for us to win the league after that but we won the game with the last kick of the ball and we have done that far too many times for it just to be a coincidence. We should be applauded for that incredible resilience.”
Ferguson, however, is mindful of Tottenham’s own position, pushing for the last Champions League place, regardless of the fact they have not won any of their last 66 away games in the league against “Big Four” clubs.
“I think they are the best Tottenham team of my time in England. On the one hand I congratulate them for beating Chelsea but, on the other hand, we now face the problems that Chelsea faced and we have to play against them.”
After this weekend United go to Sunderland before finishing the season with a home game against Stoke. Chelsea’s last game is also at home, against Wigan Athletic, but Ancelotti’s men have a tough encounter with Liverpool at Anfield next weekend.
“You have to look at that game,” Ferguson said. “If it was us going to Anfield, we’d look upon it as a difficult game. But first of all, both of us have games at the weekend to address.”
Ferguson was particularly full in his praise for Gary Neville, saying he expected the former England international to stay at Old Trafford for another year, as well as expressing his belief the defender might yet be included in Fabio Capello’s World Cup squad. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he went to South Africa.”
Of his own future, Ferguson was irritated by reports he had decided to retire at the end of next season. “Rubbish. Absolute rubbish. As I’ve said time and time again, the only thing that determines my staying here is my health. Unfortunately for you lot (the media) I’m in rude health. You can be left to suffer me. And you’ll be gone before I’m gone.”
Guardian Service
