Sir Alex Ferguson has warned his Manchester United side
that they cannot be distracted by the impending challenge of
Liverpool as they seek to bolster their title prospects against
Bolton Wanderers at Old Trafford tonight.
United will establish a three-point lead over Arsenal if they
beat Gary Megson's relegation-threatened side in their game in
hand. But Ferguson, who has expressed concern at his team's
profligacy in the FA Cup defeat by Portsmouth and Saturday's league
win at the basement club Derby County, admits there must be an
improvement on the Pride Park performance to fully exploit
Arsenal's stumble, before the meeting with in-form Liverpool on
Easter Sunday.
"There are big games coming up and Liverpool is one of them,
especially when you consider Chelsea are playing Arsenal on the
same day," said the United manager. "But when you see what happened
at Derby on Saturday, not taking our chances, you realise you can't
take anything for granted. Sure, there are big weekends ahead but
the other matches are just as important. If we perform well and
take our chances then we'll win the match against Bolton. But it's
important we respect our opponents.
"Some of our football recently has been terrific and there's
good penetration in the team. It's encouraging that we're making so
many chances. Perhaps the forwards just need to relax a little in
front of goal."
Bolton are one of only three clubs to have beaten United in the
league this season, Manchester City and West Ham United the others,
but the architect of November's victory - Nicolas Anelka - has been
sorely missed since his departure to Chelsea and four consecutive
league defeats have left Megson's team languishing third from
bottom of the table.
"Obviously they are missing Nicolas Anelka's goals but they have
Kevin Davies up front and he will do everything he possibly can to
unsettle us," added Ferguson. "He's a physical lad and we have to
deal with that but I think Nemanja Vidic and Rio Ferdinand have the
height and ability to do that.
"They [Bolton] are fighting for survival and any team fighting
for survival have to fight. That's the name of the game. I thought
they had got themselves clear of trouble but in this league if you
lose a couple of games you are back in the mix. Everyone expects
Derby to go down, Fulham are the next one and then it is a
scramble. You've got a lot of teams down there."
Ferguson may bring Gary Neville back into the first-team fold
tonight after 12 injury-plagued months and is expected to keep
faith with Ben Foster after the 24-year-old's encouraging display
at Derby. Edwin van der Sar is likely to miss out with a groin
injury and although Tomasz Kuszczak has completed a one-match
suspension the United manager is likely to reward Foster with only
his second appearance of the season.
