Alex Ferguson is confident £12.8 million new signing Louis Saha can forge as effective a striking partnership with Ruud van Nistelrooy as the Champions League-winning combination of Dwight Yorke and Andy Cole.

Saha finally completed his acrimonious move from Fulham yesterday afternoon, signing a five-and-a-half year deal to become the fourth most expensive player in Manchester United's history.

And Ferguson quickly quashed any suggestion that the 25-year-old Frenchman had been brought in purely as back-up for van Nistelrooy, insisting he saw Saha as the perfect partner for his free-scoring Dutchman.

"We are going to work with them as a partnership and see how they respond to the challenge of playing with each other," said Ferguson.

"The last really effective combination we had was the one between Dwight Yorke and Andy Cole that was so integral to winning the European Cup in 1999. Hopefully this one will be equally as successful."

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's longer-than-anticipated recovery from knee surgery prompted Ferguson to make another move when the transfer window opened at the beginning of the month.

The deal would not have gone through though without Saha's dramatic intervention. Having seen United's first bid turned down, the 15-goal former Newcastle loan signing feared the move was about to collapse, so he warned Fulham unless he was allowed to leave immediately, he would eventually go for nothing at the end of his contract.

His outburst caused a huge storm and wrecked his relationship with the Fulham fans who once adored him but Saha remains unrepentant.

"Fulham gave me an opportunity to play in the Premiership and I am grateful for that," he said. "But I also helped them get out of the First Division, so I didn't do a bad job for them either.

"I knew this was a fabulous opportunity for me and when it looked as though the deal was struggling, I decided to step forward. Maybe I shocked a few people but sometimes you have to be selfish. Now I am taking a big step forward into a big new world."

Saha will be handed a watching brief for the FA Cup tie at Northampton tomorrow, as he has already played in the competition.

Arsene Wenger insisted Arsenal would prove in their FA Cup fourth round tie against Middlesbrough that they can win without Thierry Henry after handing his leading scorer a winter break. Henry will not even be on the bench at Highbury today, leaving Dennis Bergkamp as the only front-line striker available to the FA Cup holders.

In fact, the Frenchman has not been involved in training during the past week after being told to go away on holiday, as well as missing all three cup clashes against Boro.

Wenger insisted he was still taking the FA Cup clash seriously, with Fredrik Ljungberg or Robert Pires expected to fill in up front.

Gerard Houllier is banking on a return of Michael Owen's goal power to settle the nerves and breakdown in confidence around Anfield. Liverpool face another critical week with an FA Cup fourth-round tie against Newcastle followed by the Merseyside derby against Everton - both in front of their own fans.

Houllier admitted his under-pressure side were showing frayed nerves in the draw at Wolves in midweek.

However, the Liverpool manager sees a return to form and fitness by Owen coupled with a massive FA Cup encounter as the ideal way to boost sagging morale.

Today's opponent Alan Shearer believes Owen is the best English striker of his generation.

"He's a great player. He's the best forward in English football and he'll always score goals, whatever team he's playing in - but not tomorrow, I hope," said Shearer.