MANCHESTER UNITED BOSS Sir Alex Ferguson said he was surprised to be overtaking Manchester City at the top of the English Premier League.
Rivals City fell to a 1-0 defeat at the hands of Swansea, allowing the Red Devils to move one point clear at the summit thanks to their 2-0 win at home against West Brom.
Despite the slender advantage, the Scot admits there is still a long road ahead before a winner is crowned in the title race.
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“That was a bonus. I didn’t expect that maybe,” Ferguson told MUTV. “At this time of the season, points will be dropped and you have to make sure you don’t drop as many as your opponents.”
“If you can keep winning, that is the name of the game for both of us. If you keep winning, the games whittle away and you run out of games.
I don’t care about being top of the league just now. I’m happy to be there because only a few weeks ago we were five-seven points behind them and now we’re one point ahead.
So we’ve turned around eight points and that’s credit to the players and also the resilience of our squad because as everyone knows we’ve had a lot of injuries.
The 70-year-old was pleased with the way his team played, but feels the manner of victory could have been more emphatic had the Red Devils taken all of the chances on offer.
“It was a great performance. It took us a little bit of time to get the rhythm of our game right but once we got that we played some exciting stuff. It was really good football,” he said.
“We could have scored a lot of goals. If there is a criticism, that is it. But all over the pitch we produced a sterling performance. There was a real will to win and we are well please with that part.”
Focus
Mancini called for focus from his side after Luke Moore’s late header condemned City to a 1-0 defeat at Liberty Stadium.
In the wake of yesterday’s shock, Mancini has challenged his side to finish the season strongly as they chase their first league title in 44 years.
“Sometimes we score a lot of goals. Today we didn’t score, so in the last two months it is important that we start to score; the season has just 10 games,” Mancini told Sky Sports.
“In this moment it is a tough moment but now we have 10 games to win the trophy.”
I think that they played very well for the first 15 minutes. We had good possession in the last 10 minutes of the first half and the second half.
We had control of the game. We had some chances where we should have scored but we didn’t score and then made a mistake at the last when we conceded their goal.
Fergie: We didn't expect to reel City in so quickly
MANCHESTER UNITED BOSS Sir Alex Ferguson said he was surprised to be overtaking Manchester City at the top of the English Premier League.
Rivals City fell to a 1-0 defeat at the hands of Swansea, allowing the Red Devils to move one point clear at the summit thanks to their 2-0 win at home against West Brom.
Despite the slender advantage, the Scot admits there is still a long road ahead before a winner is crowned in the title race.
“That was a bonus. I didn’t expect that maybe,” Ferguson told MUTV. “At this time of the season, points will be dropped and you have to make sure you don’t drop as many as your opponents.”
“If you can keep winning, that is the name of the game for both of us. If you keep winning, the games whittle away and you run out of games.
The 70-year-old was pleased with the way his team played, but feels the manner of victory could have been more emphatic had the Red Devils taken all of the chances on offer.
“It was a great performance. It took us a little bit of time to get the rhythm of our game right but once we got that we played some exciting stuff. It was really good football,” he said.
“We could have scored a lot of goals. If there is a criticism, that is it. But all over the pitch we produced a sterling performance. There was a real will to win and we are well please with that part.”
Focus
Mancini called for focus from his side after Luke Moore’s late header condemned City to a 1-0 defeat at Liberty Stadium.
In the wake of yesterday’s shock, Mancini has challenged his side to finish the season strongly as they chase their first league title in 44 years.
“Sometimes we score a lot of goals. Today we didn’t score, so in the last two months it is important that we start to score; the season has just 10 games,” Mancini told Sky Sports.
“In this moment it is a tough moment but now we have 10 games to win the trophy.”
Title-race analysis: just another manic Sunday
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Alex Ferguson Happy Man Premier League Roberto Mancini Swansea City FC Manchester City Manchester United West Bromwich Albion