Neville: too early to dismiss United challenge

GARY NEVILLE insists Manchester United are still in the running for the title. The England defender claims it is too early to dismiss their chances of dismantling Chelsea, who are already six points clear at the top.

United went down to Blackburn but Neville said: “This is the early part of the season and people are jockeying for positions like in the early rounds of a boxing match. You cannot predict who will win the league. We look at ourselves and are thinking about what we can do to improve results.

“We have to get our own house in order if we are going to talk about winning the championship.

“We have a great chance as there are 31 games left. We believe we can win any game we play. We will go and try to win every one of those games left.”

Neville has emphasised United will go about their business with traditional style, although he insists teams should be applauded for good defending.

“We do have to play attacking football, we do have to entertain,” Neville said. “Obviously results are important as well, but at our club we have to put on a good show as 65,000-70,000 people are not going to come every week if it is not going to be entertaining or exciting to watch.” Neville claims that Chelsea’s success could be fleeting just like Blackburn’s. The Ewood Park side have failed to emulate their title success of 1995.

“The really big clubs like Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool will always be challenging year in year out,” he said. “The likes of Chelsea and Blackburn, it might go in three-, four-, five-year cycles where they break the mould.

“When Blackburn started spending money they were talking about the wealth of Jack Walker and whether it would have a good effect. Now it is Roman Abramovich.

“It happens in the history of football that you will get wealthy people coming in an investing large amounts of money. You have to accept that at the time and all the other teams have to compete. That can only be good for football.”

Neville is hoping to return in the next four to five weeks after an operation on his damaged groin.

United manager Alex Ferguson, meanwhile, has called for a ceiling on admission prices for football matches.

Ferguson criticised London rivals, Chelsea in particular, for bumping up prices when top clubs visit their grounds.

The Scot called on the Office of Fair Trading to act after hearing entry to Stamford Bridge can cost £85 when Manchester United visit.