Brown Braced For Six-pointers

Wes Brown is looking for United to demonstrate champions’ credentials in the crucial pre-Christmas matches against the club's two main title rivals.

Following the postponement of the Reds' match at Blackpool, United's next two Barclays Premier League matches are at home to Arsenal on Monday 13 December and away at Chelsea on Sunday 19 December. Brown says that United have to win the heavyweight clashes in order to stand out from the crowd and prove that Sir Alex Ferguson's team has what it takes to go all the way in the title race.

“Maybe in seasons gone by you’d look at the fixture list and say, ‘Right, we should get nine points out of those three games and six out of those two’; and then you’d go into the games against Chelsea, Liverpool or Arsenal wanting to win, but perhaps focusing more on not losing,” he told Inside United.

“Now you have to win those games so you can lay a marker down in terms of your title ambitions.”

Although Brown believes reigning champions Chelsea and Arsenal are United’s two closest rivals for the title, he is refusing to rule out the possibility of a challenge from the likes of Manchester City or Tottenham.

“At the moment it looks like it’ll be them (Arsenal and Chelsea), but you never know who else might come into it because there are some very good sides in the league,” he said.

“The thing about Arsenal and Chelsea, though, is that they have great players and they know how to win.”

Speaking more specifically about Arsenal, Brown rebuffed the criticism often aimed at Arsene Wenger’s side that they lack an aggressive edge needed to grind out results when they are not at their best.

“People say they have great players, but they haven’t got enough fight or whatever, but I don’t see it like that,” he said.

“They’ve got some young lads in their squad, but they’ve developed into a very good team.

“They’ve always been a fantastic passing side, and from what I’ve seen so far this season they’ve learned to do the other things as well, which is getting them good results.

“As long as they keep doing that, they’ll definitely be one of the teams to beat.”