Fergie: We won’t get complacent
With Arsenal dropping points twice in four days, and blowing the chance to exert some pressure on the Premier League leaders, who themselves failed to win at Newcastle, Chelsea have emerged as the most likely threat to United’s dream of landing a record 19th championship.
The Blues have collected 19 points from a possible 21 since the beginning of March, a run that started with their Stamford Bridge defeat of United that landed Ferguson a five-game touchline ban.
As Chelsea still have to face the Red Devils at Old Trafford on May 8, Petr Cech is not alone in thinking the Londoners can haul back United’s current six-point advantage.
But Ferguson has far more faith in his troops than that.
And rather than fear Chelsea’s late season surge, the Scot actually believes it will push his side over the finishing line.
“It is good to know someone is behind you,” he said.
“You have to recognise who is there because we cannot become complacent.
“In that sense we use our experience of years past in situations like this. Hopefully it will get us where we want to go.”
In theory, today represents one of the easier fixtures of the season.
Historians need to trawl back to August 1992 for the last Everton win at Old Trafford, since when they have only managed three draws amid a dire sequence of 14 defeats.
It is 2005 since they last claimed a point, thanks to an early James McFadden goal.
However, after a difficult start to the season, David Moyes’ side are top of the form table and even retain an outside chance of landing a Europa League spot, although that would depend on Manchester City finishing outside the top four.
Little wonder Moyes has repeatedly been linked with the United job in recent seasons. Ferguson is a firm fan.
“It’s amazing what David has done,” said the Red Devils chief. “He has had to cope with a mountain of injuries over the last few weeks but Everton have still churned out the results.’’
Ferguson knows a win today leaves United requiring just seven points from their last four games to finish top.
With a Champions League semi-final against Schalke to play as well, little wonder he is so delighted to welcome back young defender Rafael today.
Even more importantly, Scotland skipper Darren Fletcher, who has been sidelined by a virus since the March 6 defeat at Liverpool, is almost ready to end an absence which currently stands at nine games.
“Darren is back training now,” said Ferguson.
“He has had a good week and might be available in 10 days’ time. He is a very important player to come back.
“In big games Darren has excelled over the years because he has the knowledge and discipline to carry out any job you want him to do. When he does come back he’ll go straight into the team.”
For the present though, he is concentrating purely on Everton, knowing how precious those three points could prove to be.
“If we win tomorrow, we will only have four games left and we will have a six-point lead,” he said. “I am not looking beyond that.”
Ahead of today’s trip to Goodison Park, John O’Shea has promised United supporters there is no way his team-mates will let a two-goal lead slip in injury time against Everton again.
Today is the first meeting between the two clubs since September, when Ferguson’s men found themselves two goals clear at Goodison Park and seemingly certain to collect their first away win of the season. Instead, they were on the wrong end of a comeback, with Tim Cahill and Mikel Arteta grabbing the stoppage-time efforts that earned the Merseysiders a point.
O’Shea said yesterday: “If we are 3-1 up with a couple of minutes to go tomorrow, I don’t think the same situation would occur. My clear memory of that game is we should have been out of sight.
“We created so many chances but were sloppy in not finishing the game off. In the end, we got punished.”
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