‘I can’t see Arsenal slipping up like last year,’ warns Keane

ROY KEANE has warned his faltering Manchester United team-mates that he does not expect Arsenal to toss away the Premiership title two seasons on the trot.

The championship race enters a potentially decisive weekend with the still unbeaten Gunners holding a five point advantage over second-placed United, with Chelsea a further point adrift in third.

With the two capital contenders due to meet at Stamford Bridge on Saturday lunchtime, the Red Devils’ own high-noon showdown with relegation-threatened rivals Leeds takes on huge significance.

Having lost two of their last four league games, conceding nine goals in the process, United hardly look in the kind of form that saw them claw back from an eight-point deficit in the final two months of last season’s campaign.

“I can’t see Arsenal slipping up like they did last year,” said the 32-year-old Corkman.

“The gap is five points now and we cannot afford to let it get any wider.

“It worries me that we have lost five times and Arsenal haven’t lost at all because if you want to win the championship, the fewer games you lose the better.

“We are putting ourselves under a lot of pressure, especially against the other big teams we have still to face.

“It basically means that when we play Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea, we will have to win. We will have to attack them and that leaves us vulnerable at the back.

On paper, the arrival of Leeds would not appear the stiffest of tests. It is 23 years since Leeds last won at Old Trafford and they are without Mark Viduka.

Alan Smith should give the flaky United defence a thorough workout but Ruud van Nistelrooy and Louis Saha are capable of inflicting more damage at the other end.

However, the same could have been said about last month’s disastrous trip to Wolves and though Steve McClaren’s Middlesbrough are significantly tougher, the Teesiders’ 3-2 win was also a huge shock.

“You could spend a long time looking at what went wrong in that game but ultimately, it wasn’t good enough,” Keane said.

“The players did brilliantly just to get back into it but you can’t continually give yourself mountains to climb. Every so often, you will be able to come back but generally, good teams will punish you.”

Saha will return having missed the FA cup win over Manchester City last weekend and Alex Ferguson will check on the fitness of the 14 players returning from international duty before finalising his line-up. He must also decide whether to risk Keane just five days before the vital Champions League clash with Porto.

Even though Keane’s on-pitch influence is as great as it has ever been, Ferguson feels his skipper is no longer capable of completing two high-intensity games in a week.

Keane may not entirely agree, but publicly, he is happy to accept it.

“Any player finds it frustrating missing games, especially when you are fit and feel quite good,” he said.

“I want to play in every game but there are other players in the same position and I have to accept the manager’s decision.

“He will always look at what is best for Manchester United and I am no different to anyone else.”