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UNITED: Sir Alex wants to get under Chelsea's skin

Ferguson Hopeful As Chelsea Come Into View

/noticias.info/ Sir Alex Ferguson hopes his side can turn up the heat on Chelsea this weekend by reducing their lead at the top of the Premiership to just six points on Saturday.

Chelsea play Arsenal on the Sunday and the Reds boss wants a United victory at Villa Park on Saturday to put Jose Mourinho’s side under pressure.

If his side get closer to Chelsea Sir Alex says the Stamford Bridge club will start to look anxiously over their shoulder.

Will it play on the Chelsea players' minds? “I would have thought so,” he said at his weekly press conference. “They have a big game on Sunday against Arsenal. It's big for both teams.

”But six points is, without question, achievable as a target. It’s better than 12, which it was at the start of the week.

”Obviously we have to do our job first against Aston Villa before we can think about what is going to happen at Highbury."

Ferguson is looking for his players to dig deep after the energetic display in the 4-0 win over Wigan on Wednesday - a victory he described as "our best goalscoring display, but not our best performance".

"The second goal made the difference," he said. "We just seemed to relax after that. We’ve missed a lot of chances at home and we’ve made that point a few times. In fairness, the players are fully aware of it. Goals always help and give you confidence.

"Six points is, without question, achievable. It's better than 12!"
Sir Alex Ferguson
”But going to Villa is always a tight game. There are never that many goals, though we have a good record down there.

”With it being an early kick-off, I hope we have recovered from Wednesday night because there was quite a quick pace to the game. Hopefully we have the right energy on Saturday, because there are no easy games in the Premiership, especially in terms of their physical nature and tempo."

Sir Alex’s has a simple target for the rest of December, a physically draining month where, once completed, United will have played ten matches - a game every three days.

”December is always an important month,” he said. “If you get to the start of January and you’re challenging then you’re in with a chance. It’s a crucial month. We’ve got ten matches in December. Most of the other teams are the same, although we had the Wigan match re-scheduled from the start of the season.

"It’s never been any different. You get no respite and, as a manager, you have to deal with the situation in terms of who you rest and when you rest them. Normally defenders survive it. Midfielders and strikers are another issue in terms of keeping them fresh.

”But by the time you get to the end of the month you should know where you stand. I want to be in the position of being within a few points of Chelsea.”

Another distraction for United's title rivals could be the Champions League when the knockout stages start up in February. United will be absent from the last 16 after falling at the group stages. But Sir Alex hopes the extra games will prove an advantage to his side. Although he admits that is no guarantee.

”We don’t know what effect the Champions League draw will have,” he said. “But Arsenal and Chelsea both have difficult ties now (they play Real Madrid and Barcelona respectively).

”We only way we can find out if not being in Europe will benefit us in the league is if they stay in it. In March and April, those extra games can be exhausting. Most people would accept that the English league is exhausting anyway.

”We certainly hope they remain in the tournament. It may help us, but sometimes playing a lot of games can help you in other ways. It helped us in 1999. Success in the Champions League can spread to the league games too. It’s a tough league, there’s the FA Cup still to play as well so, with those games as well, you never know…”

Report by Ben Hibbs at Carrington. notas_de_prensa_archivo