Van Nistelrooy reassured

Alex Ferguson has assured Ruud van Nistelrooy he still has a part to play in ensuring Manchester United qualify automatically for the Champions League by finishing as Premiership runners-up to Chelsea. The vote of confidence comes in Ferguson's programme notes for tomorrow's match against West Ham, although conspiracy theorists will note he stops short of guaranteeing the Dutch striker will remain at Old Trafford next season.

"Today's football is very much a squad game, something that those critics who have been on the trail of Ruud van Nistelrooy recently might remember," Ferguson writes. "It's not been easy for Ruud sitting on the bench but I think he understands and recognises that Louis Saha had to play in the League Cup final and that it has been impossible to leave him out since then, given his tremendous scoring form."

Owen expects to be ready

England striker Michael Owen expects to go to the World Cup "100 per cent fit".

The 26-year-old fractured a metatarsal in his right foot in a Premiership game at Tottenham on December 31st. He had a screw inserted into his foot in January and his recovery suffered a setback last week when doctors decided that screw should be replaced and tightened. Owen underwent the surgery on Friday.

"I have to admit I was a bit down when the surgeon rang last week to say he was advising me to go back into hospital," Owen said. "But it was my brother who pointed out that there are still 11 weeks until the World Cup starts. I should be back in four. That leaves plenty of time to get my full fitness and, as for scoring goals, I have been doing that all my life and I will have all the same instincts when I am 50.

"There is just one bit of the bone that needs another helping hand and Friday's operation, which went well, should do that. I expect to be playing in four weeks, which, hopefully, gives me the chance to finish the season with Newcastle. The club and the fans have been great to me and I want to pay them back."

Wenger backs Drogba

Didier Drogba's diving and deliberate handball-admission has provoked a mixed response, with the Chelsea striker receiving unlikely backing from Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger.

Drogba (28) had been criticised for going to ground too easily, and players' chief Gordon Taylor suggested he needed to eradicate this.

Despite revealing "sometimes I dive, sometimes I stand up" after Saturday's match against Manchester City, Wenger is an admirer of the Ivory Coast international's attitude.

"Drogba is a bit under the spotlight at the moment for obvious reasons, but overall I like his attitude. He is not an unfair player, basically," he said. "He makes sometimes more of it, like many strikers do as well, but sometimes he is maybe pushed or pulled when nobody sees it - defenders cheat on the strikers as well, you know."

Drogba scored against City after appearing to handle, a week after getting a goal disallowed at Fulham for handball. "What he got wrong maybe was on the handball when he scored the goal," Wenger added.

"But overall I do not think you have to single out Drogba"

Villalonga's Liverpool plans Spanish multi-millionaire Juan Villalonga has big plans for the future of Liverpool as a "global force".

Reports suggest the possibility of a major financial stake-holding through a consortium fronted by telecommunications entrepreneur Villalonga.

To do so, he will need to formulate a plan of action agreeable to Anfield chairman David Moores.

But it appears Villalonga has been thinking long term: "I want Liverpool to change from a domestically focused club into a global force," he said.