No horsing around from Man Utd

Alex Ferguson has claimed his Manchester United thoroughbreds now have “the bit between their teeth” as they head into the final furlong of the Barclays Premiership title race.

A 4-0 romp over rock-bottom Watford at Old Trafford means the Red Devils now require 11 wins from their final 13 games to end a three-year championship drought.

Victory for United was never in serious doubt once Cristiano Ronaldo had rifled them in front from the penalty spot and, with Henrik Larsson and Wayne Rooney adding to Lloyd Doyley’s second-half own goal, the hosts not only maintained a six-point lead over main rivals Chelsea but extended their advantage in the goal-difference column to 14.

“We have the bit between our teeth now,” said manager Ferguson.

“That is another game gone and we are another goal better off, so it has been a good night for us. Maybe we over-elaborated at times but Watford set out their stall to make it hard for us and, in the end, it was a comfortable enough win.”

With far stiffer tests to come, notably at Tottenham on Sunday, Ferguson took the opportunity to hand rare starts to Kieran Richardson, John O’Shea and Tomasz Kuszczak.

While there was no great fluency about United’s play in the opening period, Jay DeMerit’s foul on Ole Gunnar Solskjaer offered Ronaldo a golden chance to break the deadlock with his 14th goal of the campaign.

The Portugal winger gradually improved, as did Rooney, who took his tally to four in three games with a sublime finish to wrap up United’s biggest win in three months.

Ferguson added: “I have been saying for a while now that, if Wayne can get on a run where he starts scoring one a game, it will make an incredible difference to us.”

The United boss confirmed striker Louis Saha should be fit for the weekend trip to White Hart Lane although, with Larsson also finding the target for the second time since his loan move from Helsingborg, the Frenchman’s presence is not quite so vital as it was earlier in the campaign.

For Watford boss Aidy Boothroyd, there was no disgrace in defeat having feared his side might be on the wrong end of the result once United had suffered their injury-time defeat at Arsenal 10 days ago.

“I knew someone was going to pay for that Arsenal result,” he said.

“Getting a result against a team like that at Old Trafford was always going to be incredibly difficult for us.

“Manchester United have a squad full of world-class players. They are capable of being the best team in the world.

“I have a feeling they are going to win the championship this season for the simple reason they have not won it for three years.

“I am a bad loser and I want to win, but we operate on a budget which is about 4% of theirs, which just emphasises how unfair the league is.

“I just told the players nobody should go home miserable tonight because they did their best and our season is not going to hinge on games like this.”