Big-game nous will see United reel in Blues, insists Ferguson
Many have written off United’s chances of making it four Premier League titles in succession after the Red Devils slipped to a 1-0 defeat at Stamford Bridge almost a fortnight ago.
The result still rankles with Ferguson with the United boss of the opinion that a number of key decisions in the game went against his side.
However the Scot points to his side’s experience of playing in crunch matches over the years as one reason why they should not be ruled out of the title race just yet.
“Five points is not insurmountable, that has been shown time and time again in the Premier League,’’ he said.
“You can come from behind and you can be in front and lose it, as we did in 1997. It is a challenge.
“But I always think if you get to New Year’s Day a point in front or behind, with our experience in big-game situations over the run-in, we have a great chance.’’
Ferguson also claimed his side will benefit from having an uninterrupted fixture list with the next international break not scheduled until March.
“Probably the league will start now,’’ he said. You will get some sort of consistency and we won’t be worrying about which players are coming back from international duty, where they have been and arranging flights for them to come back in time.
“We have got them now right through until March. We are delighted with that.’’ The 67-year-old welcomes Everton to Old Trafford today and knows that, despite their horrific injury list, they will provide a stern test for his side.
“Everton have had a tremendous run of injuries and David Moyes is facing much the same situation as myself at the moment,’’ he declared.
“You can understand how difficult it is to win games when you don’t have your best team out. Once they get their full squad back they will soon come up the table again.”
The United boss is confident defender Rio Ferdinand will not be consigned to a lengthy period on the sidelines after identifying the root of his current injury problems.
Ferdinand has missed the last couple of weeks’ action with Manchester United after picking up what was thought to be a calf injury.
However, it has now been confirmed the injury relates to a previous problem with his lower back.
The England defender will miss today’s match, but the 31-year-old should be back in action soon.
“It is back related,” Ferguson said. “We are not putting a timescale on it but it is not a situation where we are saying it will be months, it might be a couple of weeks or it might be a few weeks but that is it.”
With Ferdinand out, Ferguson is relieved to have Nemanja Vidic available after he missed the defeat at Chelsea with a calf problem.
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