Ferguson hits back at Vieira's 'cheat' claim

MANCHESTER United manager Alex Ferguson has blasted Patrick Vieira's claims that Ruud van Nistelrooy is "a cheat and a coward."

The former Arsenal midfielder attacked Van Nistelrooy in his recently-released autobiography, harking back to the incident at Old Trafford in 2003 which ended up with Vieira being sent off.

At the time, Vieira felt the United striker made far too much of a flick of the Frenchman's foot which made no contact and so outraged were the Arsenal players that they surrounded Van Nistelrooy following his injury-time penalty miss and jostled him as he left the pitch.