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Fergie looks ahead to New Year duel with Chelsea

(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-11-23 11:15

MANCHESTER, England: Sir Alex Ferguson believes Manchester United can take charge of the title race if they reach the New Year in touch with leaders Chelsea.

Manchester United's Darren Fletcher scores past Everton's Jack Rodwell (second left) during their English Premier League match at Old Trafford on Saturday. United won 3-0. [AP]

Goals from Darren Fletcher, Michael Carrick and Antonio Valencia completed a 3-0 victory for Ferguson's side over Everton which kept it within five points of Carlo Ancelotti's side. The United manager declared himself satisfied with his side's performance after criticizing his players for failing to make the most of their chances in front of goal in recent games.

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And he maintains if they can reduce the deficit between themselves and Chelsea over the next five weeks, they can step up their title challenge during the second half of the campaign. On Saturday, Chelsea trounced Wolverhampton Wanderers 4-0 to stay five points clear of United at the top of the Premier League

"That's name of the game for us," he said. "I have always said, and I stand by it, if we get to New Year and we are a within a point or a point ahead or level then we have a great chance in the second half of the season."

And he said: "I would have taken it before the game. I think the performance was controlled. We showed good patience in the first half which you need to break down teams like Everton.

"When we've got to 2-0 we've not pushed ahead to kill them. We've done that and I'm pleased."

United were set on course for victory by an outstanding strike from Fletcher who volleyed past Tim Howard from the edge of the Everton penalty box.

Ferguson said: "We got the goal at the right time and a great goal by Darren Fletcher, a goal you wouldn't expect him to score. It was a quality finish, he is improving all the time."

Valencia's strike was his fourth for the club since his summer move from Wigan and the United manager believes the Ecuador international is fast developing into a goal-threat.

"He is an improving player," the manager said. "You see the performance level each year for the past few years has gone up and up and he is extraordinary like that. It is a goal we didn't expect from him but we will take it.

"Everyone was talking about the lack of goals from midfield but fortunately we have got two of the midfield players scoring today."

David Moyes conceded his side was well beaten although he felt Everton suffered from a number of refereering decisions.

"At half-time I spoke to the fourth official, I mentioned to him that a lot of decisions were going the wrong way," said Moyes.

"I felt that if I said the wrong things then maybe I would get a few decisions coming my way. That's what I told him.

"Manchester United dominated the game, I can't complain. We had maybe a decent spell at 1-0, even at 2-0 we had chances. We didn't do enough."

AFP