De Gea will come good, insists Fergie

Alex Ferguson is confident no one will remember David De Gea’s current difficulties in two or three years.

The young goalkeeper is set to regain his Manchester United place for tomorrow’s crucial Barclays Premier League visit to Chelsea.

Despite rookie Ben Amos keeping a clean sheet against Stoke in midweek, De Gea’s recovery from a minor knock means he will face Andre Villas-Boas’ men as Anders Lindegaard has been ruled out for up to six weeks with ankle ligament damage.

It comes just eight days after another tortuous afternoon at Liverpool, where De Gea’s performance was picked apart by the critics and blamed as one of the major reasons why United crashed out of the FA Cup.

Whilst Ferguson accepts his £18 million summer arrival from Atletico Madrid has had a few teething troubles, he also feels De Gea has the talent to ensure any problems are just short term.

“The boy has got a great talent,” said Ferguson.

“He has made two or three mistakes but in two or three years’ time we won’t be discussing that at all because he will have matured. Then he’ll be realising his potential.”

In the immediate aftermath of last weekend’s defeat, Ferguson blamed his defenders for crowding De Gea, not allowing him out to challenge for a cross Daniel Agger headed home unchallenged.

The Scot now concedes a more experienced keeper would have done something about it, revealing De Gea is bulking up in a bid to cope with the more physical demands of the Premier League.

However, he also believes errors are being magnified because of the club he plays for. “When you make a mistake at United, it can be exaggerated a little bit,” he said.

“They are mistakes and he wants to address it himself. He will do through maturity and the understanding of the English game. It is harder when you are replacing Edwin van der Sar and Peter Schmeichel. They are probably two of the greatest goalkeepers in European football over the last 40 years.”

United are looking for their first league success at Stamford Bridge since 2002. They will do so with a fresher looking squad, including Ashley Young, who has missed eight matches with a knee injury, and Tom Cleverley, who has featured only twice since the beginning of September due to foot and ankle problems.

“Freshness will help,” said Ferguson. “When Ashley got his injury at Fulham it was just at a point when his game was starting to shade a little.

“He is fresh now and his training performances the last two weeks have been really good.”

United’s present position, trailing Manchester City on goal difference, allows Ferguson to have a further dig in his war of words with‘Match of the Day’ pundit Alan Hansen, who denied he called United woeful, an observation United have challenged by digging out the transcript.

“He’s dug himself a grave really,” said Ferguson. “When you think about it we won the league by nine points last season, made it to a European final and were in the FA Cup semi-final — we couldn’t have been that woeful.”