Sven in firing line as United see red

MANCHESTER UNITED'S FA Cup semi-final plans have been thrown into chaos, and part of the blame is being laid at the door of Sven-Goran Eriksson.

The embattled England coach's fraught relationship with United took another downturn when he apparently went back on a deal struck for Nicky Butt and Phil Neville to play in Wednesday's friendly in Sweden while Gary Neville and Paul Scholes remained at home.

United boss Alex Ferguson struck the agreement in the belief that neither Butt nor Neville would play for more than 45 minutes.

Instead, Butt appeared for 77 minutes of the 1-0 defeat, while Neville was one of two outfield players to complete the game in Gothenburg.

"We certainly didn't expect them to play for that long," admitted the United boss. "We expected it to be half a game. The pair have ruled themselves out in a way and so I have had to change my thinking."

Eriksson rejected Ferguson's claims. "I agreed with Sir Alex that I would not call up Paul Scholes and Gary Neville into the squad," the England coach said. "However, there was no arrangement about how long Nicky Butt or Philip Neville would play".

Neville and Butt were likely to be on the bench at best and their absences will pale into insignificance should 26-goal hit-man Ruud van Nistelrooy fail a fitness test on his knee injury.

Ferguson says his star striker is "very doubtful", and while some pundits have suggested the Scot is merely trying to confuse the Gunners camp, the problem is sufficiently worrying for Diego Forlan to be called back from South America, where he had been expected to remain for a few days following Uruguay's disappointing World Cup defeat to Venezuela.

"Ruud is a serious doubt," said Ferguson. "It is looking very doubtful for him at the moment.

"It would be a bitter blow for us if he was to miss out because he is the man who can win us the game."

Arsene Wenger will leave his key selection decision until the last minute whether or not to rest Thierry Henry.

Wenger knows his team face a gruelling schedule of four games in the next nine days, a programme which he describes as "beyond common sense".

While Dennis Bergkamp seems certain to play, the Arsenal boss is delaying the decision of whether to start with Henry or Jose Reyes.

"I haven't spoken to Thierry. Everybody wants to play but we have four games in nine days and I have to find a good balance as we could even play extra time twice."

Henry played the second half of France's friendly in Holland, his 47th game of the season.

Wenger's decision will be based not just on this game, but on Arsenal's forthcoming schedule, with the Easter games against Liverpool and Newcastle having been moved forward by 24 hours each.

"You never know the psychological consequences of defeat and at the moment, we're on a roll so every game is hugely important.

"Maybe you could say it's a bigger game for Manchester United, but it's a massive game for us as we can get into the final again and that would be an historic achievement for us."