Sir Alex Ferguson has done his best to heap the pressure on title rivals Chelsea and Arsenal by warning they have still to travel to Aston Villa after seeing Manchester United side go third in the Premier League with a hard-fought 1-0 away win against the Midlands club.
Ryan Giggs’s 41st-minute goal was all that separated the teams come the final whistle in Tuesday’s late kick-off game.
Afterwards Ferguson told Sky Sports: ”That was our hardest away game of the season. It was end-to-end stuff. They [Villa] could have got something out of it. But we showed a lot of guts … We weren’t going to lose that game.”
He added: ”We’ve been here, and it’s a difficult place to come. Arsenal and Chelsea have still to come here.”
But for all Ferguson’s words, his side were left nine points behind leaders Chelsea and one shy of champions Arsenal, who are away to Newcastle on Wednesday and will be hoping victory reduces their deficit to five points.
And Ferguson, whose team are now third on goal difference from Everton, admitted: ”We’re climbing up the table, but it’s getting to Chelsea that is the problem. But if we keep our consistency we’ll get very, very close.”
Victory meant United had dropped just two points from their past eight games. By contrast, this latest defeat was Villa’s fourth on the trot in a run where they’d taken just one point from six matches.
Villa manager David O’Leary said he could not expect better from his largely youthful side and reiterated his call for chairperson Doug Ellis to finance his attempt to bring in four players during the January transfer window.
”I can’t ask for any more than what the players are giving me,” the ex-Leeds boss said.
”I’ve given the board a list of four players who, if they come here, will improve us. At the moment I’ve got 14 players and kids. I’d like to make that 18 plus kids,” former Arsenal and Republic of Ireland centre-half O’Leary added.
”Fifteen players have gone and three have come in. We’ve only been able to raise £2-million from those 15. I think we won something like £8-million after doing so well last season.
”But it’s the board’s decision. I’ve just signed a new contract here and I’ll work with what I’m given.”
Wales wing Giggs (31), who had already gone close, eventually broke the deadlock in the 41st minute by finishing a move he’d started.
He flicked the ball to John O’Shea on the right, then ran on to the return pass before striking a powerful low shot past Villa ‘keeper Thomas Sorensen.
Villa pressed at the start of the second period and United struggled to get out of their half, although the hosts, for all their effort, did not create a clear-cut chance.
In stoppage time, United striker Alan Smith missed a great chance to make the game safe when, from barely two yards out, he turned substitute Roy Keane’s cross on to the bar. — Sapa-AFP