Boss Pleased With Players

Sir Alex described Manchester United’s 2-0 win against Swansea City on Sunday as “a decent result” given the circumstances surrounding the match.

Before kick-off, the Reds watched Manchester City beat Newcastle United at the Sports Direct Arena, meaning a win for Roberto Mancini’s men next week against Queens Park Rangers would secure a first league title for the Blues since 1968.

It made for a strange atmosphere at Old Trafford and meant United had to chase goals against Swansea in an effort to claw back City’s superior goal difference.

“It could have been one of these days where their heads were down a little bit,” Sir Alex told MUTV.

“But they played with good professionalism and they enjoyed it. They did well and showed good enthusiasm. I'm satisfied with the attitude of the players. It’s a decent result for us.”

Despite the need for goals, it took United 22 minutes to register a meaningful effort on goal – perhaps a result of over-anxiety inside Old Trafford.

“I think the optimism from the fans – even from ourselves – to score a lot of goals was perhaps a wee bit too optimistic,” the manager explained.

“But we had a lot of chances, we played a lot of terrific football in the first half in particular.”

Indeed, Paul Scholes and Ashley Young both found the net before the interval and, for a short while, it looked as if the floodgates may open.

But the half-time whistle came as welcome relief to the visitors, who regrouped and reorganised for the second period.

“In the second half Swansea slowed the game down and made it difficult for us to get the ball back. They’re good at that. That’s their main defence: they keep the ball and they keep it for long periods and it’s hard to get it back off of them.

“They deepened and passed the ball back to their goalkeeper, who’s a fantastic user of the ball. They killed the game that way.

“If we’d scored an early goal in the second half we would have fired the crowd up, fired ourselves up and made them doubt themselves a bit. But we didn’t get that early goal and the game petered out.”