Rafael Benitez: take issue with Wenger
'to say United are untouchable is not right'
Rafael Benítez has sent out a message to the rest of the
Barclays Premier League, urging other teams not to be intimidated
by Manchester United’s reputation as “untouchables”.
Arsène Wenger declared this week that United “look untouchable”
even before they went five points clear at the top of the table,
having not conceded a goal in their past 14 league matches. But
Benítez, whose Liverpool side remain in hot pursuit of the
champions, has taken issue with the Arsenal manager’s description
of Sir Alex Ferguson’s team.
“In football, anything can happen,” Benítez said. “They [United]
are a good team, for sure, but to say they are untouchable is not
right.
“I’m sure that you can see a lot of games where they weren’t
playing that well and weren’t scoring a lot of goals. I think the
other teams know that, until the last few games, they were winning
a lot of games 1-0, but then, after two or three results, people
are talking about the whole season. Clearly they are a very good
team with very good players, but we think we can beat them when we
play them [at Old Trafford on March 14]. Clearly there is a big gap
in the table, but we can reduce the gap if we win our games.”
Benítez believes that the title race could be affected by the
resumption of the Champions League next week, with United visiting
Inter Milan on Tuesday and Liverpool travelling to Real Madrid 24
hours later. Steven Gerrard, the Liverpool captain, is expected to
be fit to face Real, despite having been ruled out of their match
against Manchester City tomorrow.
By then, United hope to have moved eight points clear by beating
Blackburn Rovers at Old Trafford this evening, but Ferguson drew on
bitter experience — when his team conceded a far bigger lead to
Arsenal — to warn about the pitfalls ahead. “In 1998 it was a
foregone conclusion that we would win the league until we came to
the beginning of March,” he said.
“Injuries played their part and, when you lose a game, it gives
the team chasing you real encouragement.”
It is not only rival managers who are encouraging the perception
of a one-horse race, with Paddy Power, the bookmaker, having
already paid out on United becoming champions again. Ferguson said:
“It’s only a gimmick. I haven’t had my bonus yet [from the club]. I
only get that when we win the league, so I’ll have to keep
working.”
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