Gunners won't hand us title, says Keane

Roy Keane has warned his faltering Manchester United team-mates that he does not expect Arsenal to toss away the Premiership title two seasons on the trot.

The championship race enters a potentially decisive weekend with the still unbeaten Gunners holding a five point advantage over second-placed United with Chelsea a further point adrift in third.

With the two London contenders due to meet at Stamford Bridge on Saturday lunchtime, the Red Devils’ own high-noon showdown with relegation-threatened Roses rivals Leeds takes on huge significance.

Having lost two of their last four league games, conceding nine goals in the process, United hardly look in the kind of form that saw them claw back an eight-point lead in the final two months of last season’s campaign.

Although they can fall back on the experience of 12 months’ ago as they begin this season’s fightback, Keane is not of the opinion that Arsenal will collapse as dramatically again.

And the influential Irishman is adamant the Old Trafford outfit cannot afford to fall any further behind.

“I can’t see Arsenal slipping up like they did last year,” said the 32-year-old.

“The gap is five points now and we cannot afford to let it get any wider.

“It worries me that we have lost five times and Arsenal haven’t lost at all because if you want to win the championship, the fewer games you lose the better.

“We are putting ourselves under a lot of pressure, especially against the other big teams we have still to face.

“It basically means that when we play Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea we will have to win. We will have to attack them and that leaves us vulnerable at the back.

“We did it last year and hopefully it will be the same again but I would prefer not to be in that position."

On paper, the arrival of Leeds would not appear to represent the stiffest of tests.

It is 23 years since they last tasted victory at Old Trafford and now they are without Mark Viduka, the Australian Soccer Association having invoked the FIFA five-day ruling to prevent him playing against United after he failed to fly out for Australia’s friendly in Venezuela.

Alan Smith should give the flaky United defence a thorough workout but Ruud van Nistelrooy and Louis Saha are capable of inflicting more damage at the other end.

However, the same could have been said about last month’s disastrous trip to Wolves and though Steve McClaren’s Middlesbrough are significantly tougher opponents, the Teessiders’ 3-2 win was still a huge shock.

It is the loss of those games that has undermined United’s title bid and while Keane, who was rested for the Boro game, praised the Red Devils’ defiant response after falling two goals behind, the Corkman knows you can’t give any opponent an advantage like that and expect to come out on top.

“You could spend a long time looking at what went wrong in that game but ultimately, it wasn’t good enough,” he said.

“The players did brilliantly just to get back into it but you can’t continually give yourself mountains to climb.

“Every so often, you will be able to come back but generally, good teams will punish you.”

Saha’s return will ensure at least one change from the side which earned an FA Cup quarter-final tie with either Fulham or West Ham with their win over Manchester City last weekend.

Manager Alex Ferguson will check on the fitness of the 14 players returning from international duty before finalising his line-up and he must also decide whether to risk Keane just five days before the vital Champions League encounter with Porto.

Even though Keane’s on-pitch influence is as great as it has ever been, Ferguson feels his skipper is no longer capable of completing two high-intensity games in a week.

It is not a belief the Irishman totally agrees with, although publicly at least, he is happy to accept it.

“Any player finds it frustrating missing games, especially when you are fit and feel quite good,” he said.

“I want to play in every game but there are other players in the same position and I have to accept the manager’s decision.

“He will always look at what is best for Manchester United and I am no different to anyone else.”