Form Confounds Our Critics

Sir Alex Ferguson insists United are worthy leaders of the Barclays Premier League after steering his side to another slender victory, this time over Stoke City.

The Reds conceded by the manager’s admission a “soft goal” to allow the Potters briefly back into the game at 1-1, but the boss bristles at suggestion his team are topping the table without playing particularly well.

“You can look at as many stats as you like, shots at goal, number of passes and things like that. But when you look at our home record, some of our performances at home have been fantastic,” Sir Alex told MUTV.

“We’ve had two bad performances away from home, against Sunderland (in October) and on Saturday against West Brom. It was a battling performance against Birmingham (last week) and we maybe should have won the game.

“Othewise, we’ve had some good performances away from home. Okay we’ve thrown a few points away but that doesn’t mean to say we didn’t play well.

“We’re an easy target for that kind of talk. We’ve just got to dismiss it and focus on what our ambition is and that’s to win the league.”

The Reds’ chances of doing just that were boosted by two exquisite strikes to sink Stoke – Chicharito’s close-range flick and Nani’s left-foot rocket from the edge of the box.

“We keep saying to strikers about getting across to the front post, we keep preaching that and Chicharito did that for us tonight and got the reward for it,” said Sir Alex.

“When Stoke made it 1-1 just after half-time it gave us a bit of concern. I’d have to look at their goal again, it was a free header. No-one challenged and young Chris Smalling, who was otherwise magnificent, got caught out wide with Tuncay. That left us a bit bare in the middle of defence. It was a soft goal to lose, I suppose.

“Thankfully Nani produced a fantastic goal to out us back in front. He’s always a threat and he’s got a good return of goals now.”

United, meanwhile, have a good return of points – 44 from 20 games – and will surely remain top until at least mid-January with the Reds’ goal difference far superior to Manchester City’s, and FA Cup ties looming before the next round of league games.

“I think we’re going to be in the shake-up,” Sir Alex assessed.

“I think if you’re in there when it comes to New Year time, it’s a good guide as to where you’re going to be at the end of the season.

“Our history tells us that we play better in the second half of the season and big games are not an issue for us because we relish that.”