Smalling: Confidence High

Chris Smalling admits United will take confidence from the 6-1 aggregate slaughter of Schalke into Sunday's Premier League showdown with Chelsea.

The Reds roared past the Bundesliga side in emphatic fashion to clinch a place in the Champions League final against Barcelona and, at the same time, rested several key stars ahead of the weekend.

Smalling was one of the players drafted in by Sir Alex Ferguson and produced another polished performance despite the obvious threat from a team that scored five times at the San Siro against Inter Milan.

"This journey we've been on in the Champions League is leading to Wembley now," Smalling told MUTV. "It's another massive occasion and I'm enjoying every minute of it at the moment.

"The first goal definitely lifted us and we played some great football. Raul has done so much in his career so it was a big test and then they brought on a player like Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, who 's a good player too, so that was another good test. I think we did really well."

The former Fulham defender is hoping United's exceptional home record will continue when second-placed Chelsea visit Manchester in the key title encounter.

"Everyone has obviously been talking about the Chelsea game but we had a job to do tonight," he explained.

"It gives us good confidence because there were a few players in there tonight who haven't played a lot recently but we put on a really good performance and everyone is really looking forward to Sunday now.

"It's never-ending at the moment. Hopefully when I come to sit down in another three weeks or so we'll have done the double. That would be a massive season for myself and it will show this season has been a real one to savour.

"It's going to be a massive game on Sunday. They've caught us up but with three games left, it's definitely in our hands. All season we've been really good at home and hopefully that will carry on. We'll all really confident."