Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has admitted
there is a "massive chance" Arsenal will now go on to take their
Barclays Premier League crown.
The Scot regards being top at New Year as one of the season's
significant milestones and that position is now occupied again by
the Gunners, who won 4-1 at Everton to go two points clear after
United had stumbled to a 2-1 defeat at West Ham. He said: "I always
feel if you reach New Year on top you have a massive chance. We
still have a great chance but obviously it was disappointing to
lose the way we did."
Unsurprisingly however, the League's most successful manager was
unwilling to write off his players following one below-par
performance on a day when Wayne Rooney was absent through illness.
He added: "It's a great team we've got and we just have to
galvanise ourselves and get the reply you always look for after a
bad performance.
"We need to go on a long run now because we are coming to the
crucial part of the season. In many ways the season starts
mushrooming. "There are league games, Champions League football and
FA Cup ties. It's a congested fixture list and you have to respond
and play football properly."
The new year - which starts the day after Ferguson's 66th birthday
- begins with a home game with Birmingham, who are managed by one
of his former players at Aberdeen, Alex McLeish. And Ferguson was
confident Rooney would be back for that game along with fellow
illness victim Michael Carrick.
He said: "Wayne and Michael should be okay, they were both
suffering from a virus. Michael was taken ill during the night, the
doctor attended to him on Saturday morning and there was no way he
could have taken part. "Wayne was ruled out on Friday. There's
little bits going down at this time of year, quite a few clubs have
got it I suppose. But hopefully they will be ready for
Tuesday."
