Fergie: "it was interesting
Rafa Benitez got a European tie and he’s talking about
Alex Ferguson. Fantastic! I didn’t know I was that
important.’
Sir Alex Ferguson yesterday taunted Rafael Benitez over
Liverpool’s dramatic Champions League collapse and claimed Chelsea
are now the main threat to Manchester United’s Barclays Premier
League title hopes.
Benitez re-ignited his long-running war of words with Ferguson
on the eve of Liverpool’s European clash Chelsea in midweek,
claiming the United manager’s habit of talking about Liverpool
showed he was ‘scared’ of his arch-rivals.
But after seeing Chelsea romp to an emphatic 3-1 win at Anfield,
Ferguson wasted no time in mocking Benitez in a manner which
suggested he had succeeded in distracting the Spaniard.
Ferguson suggested Benitez was guilty of taking his eye off the
ball ahead of Liverpool’s Champions League defeat to Chelsea in
midweek by talking about him rather than the task in hand.
He said: ‘The interesting thing as far as Rafa Benitez is
concerned is that he’s got a European tie and he’s talking about
Alex Ferguson. Fantastic! I didn’t know I was that important.’
Asked if he had got under the skin of the Liverpool boss,
Ferguson folded his arms and sat back with a satisfied grin.
‘I have no more comment to make!’ he added, with the mischief of
a man who knew he had already said more than enough.
And, just for good measure, he suggested that
relegation-haunted Blackburn – managed by his close pal Sam
Allardyce – could pull off a shock result at Anfield today.
Mocked: Benitez
‘If you ask me a question about other teams I’ll give
you an opinion. There’s no fault in that. ‘Arsene Wenger was
talking about Manchester United a couple of weeks ago, which I
tried to dampen down as much as I could because I know the dangers
of that. But he was asked a question and he gave a fair
answer.’
Ferguson believes the nature of Chelsea’s win over Liverpool
will now give them the impetus to press United until the end of the
season — a point endorsed by Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger
yesterday.
Sir Alex even compared the impact of the victory to Ryan Giggs’s
Cup semi-final winner against Arsenal which propelled United to the
Treble a decade ago.‘Chelsea will be absolutely buoyed up,’ said
Ferguson. ‘You saw the celebrations at the end. They knew it was an
emphatic result. They’ll be flying at the moment.
‘It does that to you when you get a very important result. I
remember when we won the Treble in ’99. You can never forget
Giggs’s goal at Villa Park. That lifted everyone. From then on we
were unbeatable. Hopefully Chelsea are beatable.’
United go to Sunderland today with a one-point lead over
Liverpool — at home to Blackburn at lunchtime — and a four-point
advantage over Chelsea, who entertain Bolton.
United also have a game in hand but Ferguson is refusing to rely
on that and insists he is prepared for the title race to go to the
wire. With Rio Ferdinand and Jonny Evans set to miss the trip to
the Stadium of Light, Ferguson knows United’s defence will come
under scrutiny after conceding 10 goals in four games.
The problems at the back which were first ruthlessly exposed by
Liverpool were still evident in the draw with Porto on Tuesday, and
the United boss admitted struggling Sunderland will take hope from
that.
