Alex Ferguson has saluted the spirit and determination of his Manchester United squad after watching them end a gruelling week with victory in the derby clash with Manchester City.
Goals from Wayne Rooney, Louis Saha and Cristiano Ronaldo delivered a 3-1 win and increased the pressure on champions Chelsea, who were due to kick off against Arsenal on Sunday nine points behind the league leaders.
United, chasing their first title since 2003, are now unbeaten in 12 league games after taking 32 points out of the last 36 on offer.
And Ferguson insists his players have the staying power to remain in pole position for the remainder of the season.
”There are a lot of hurdles to navigate but we have got the ability and hopefully we can cope with it,” said Ferguson, who was planning to turn into an Arsenal supporter for the day on Sunday.
”A lot of people may have thought we’d drop something having to play at Middlesbrough last Saturday, Benfica in the Champions League on Wednesday and then this game.”
The Scot added: ”You have to earn the right to win these games and I think we did that.
”It was a typical derby game. We had some fantastic opportunities to really punish them. At other times we really had to scrap and fight.”
”The legs were going a little bit at the end, but you’d expect that because we only had two and half days to prepare for this match while City had a full week.
”It is a bit unfair the way televison organise these things. They should be doing better for us because playing on a Wednesday night and then a Saturday lunchtime is not right.
”But you saw the players’ determination. When it really mattered they got down to it again and finished them off.”
The United players’ reward for their recent efforts was three days off.
”We’ve had a tough spell the last few weeks — no question about that,” added Ferguson. ”It’s been more or less the same players all the time. We’ll give them a three day rest now which they really deserve.
”It’s been a great week for us after qualifying for the last 16 of the Champions League as well.”
City, who briefly looked as if they might take something from the match after Tunisia international Hatem Trabelsi pulled the score back to 2-1, have now lost eight out of nine away in the Premiership this season.
They finished with 10 men after Italian striker Bernardo Corradi was cautioned for diving to try and win a penalty in the last minute, his second yellow card.
City boss Stuart Pearce praised controversial referee Graham Poll afterwards for dismissing the player.
”I thought the referee got it right,” said Pearce. ”Corradi went down too cheaply. I’ll talk to him next week about it because I would prefer it if he stayed on his feet a little bit better.”
City were undone by the defensive errors which contributed to all three of United’s goals.
Rooney, who was outstanding, broke the deadlock with just six minutes on the clock after Sylvain Distin failed to cut out a cross by Ronaldo.
Trabelsi then gifted possession to Wayne Rooney, who started the move that allowed Saha to score United’s second just before the break.
Tunisian Trabelsi made up for his earlier error when he pulled a goal back for City in the 73rd minute, beating Edwin van der Sar with a powerful 20-yard effort — his first goal for the club.
But City’s hopes of escaping from Old Trafford with a draw for the third successive season were dashed when Ronaldo made it 3-1 from close range after Distin failed to cut out Rooney’s 84th minute cross. – Sapa-AFP