Football: Fergie preaches caution on return to Premier League action
LONDON: Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson is treating today’s Premier League match at Newcastle with as much importance as the League Cup final.
United won the second of the five trophies available to them this season by beating Tottenham on penalties in Sunday’s final, but Ferguson knows that his players could drop points at St James’ Park if they allow the triumph to distract them, letting Chelsea or even Liverpool back into the title race.
United are seven points clear in their attempt for a third consecutive Premier League title, but that advantage could be eroded by the time they play because Chelsea were at Portsmouth and Liverpool hosted Sunderland yesterday.
“Newcastle will be a very tough game for us,” Ferguson said. “I love the atmosphere of that ground, they’ve got great support up there.
“We’ll have to make sure we’re ready, energised and fresh for that one.”
Record breaker: Manchester United goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar is likely to return to action against Newcastle today. — AP
Ferguson will guard against complacency and fatigue by shaking up his line-up, even though United haven’t lost at Newcastle since 2000 and won 5-1 there last season.
“I’ll have to freshen up, obviously, because the league and also the Champions League are still the priorities,” Ferguson said.
First-choice goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar is likely to return and will attempt to extend his British record streak of 1,305 minutes without conceding a goal, replacing Ben Foster — who made two crucial saves on Sunday and stopped a penalty in the shoot-out.
Darren Fletcher, Michael Carrick, Dimitar Berbatov and Wayne Rooney all sat out Sunday’s match, but Rooney could be among those to return after recovering from a virus.
Tottenham, meanwhile, have other concerns as they chase points to get away from the relegation zone. Spurs host Middlesbrough today and then play at Sunderland in Saturday’s only Premier League match.
Saturday’s match will take Tottenham’s tally to six matches in 17 days before next weekend’s tough trip to fourth-placed Aston Villa.
“I think they decided to fit in another game on Saturday against Sunderland because we haven’t been playing enough recently,” manager Harry Redknapp said sarcastically. “Aston Villa are off to Dubai the week before we play them while we’re playing on Wednesday and Saturday again.”
Redknapp can at least call upon Robbie Keane, Pascal Chimbonda, Wilson Palacios and Fraizer Campbell, who were all ineligible to play on Sunday. Tom Huddlestone could play against Boro and Jonathan Woodgate could recover from the head injury that ruled him out on Sunday.
Today also features Everton at Blackburn, Hull City at Fulham, Villa at Manchester City, Bolton at Stoke, and West Ham at Wigan. — AP