Boss: City Loss Altered Plan

Sir Alex Ferguson says he opted to take advantage of Manchester City’s shock defeat to Southampton by fielding his strongest team against Everton – a decision that was vindicated after United secured a 2-0 win to move 12 points clear at the top.

Speaking after Sunday’s comfortable win at Old Trafford, the Reds boss revealed he had originally planned to rest several players ahead of Wednesday’s goliath meeting with Real Madrid in the UEFA Champions Leagaue but changed his made following Saturday's events at St Marys.

“We have got to win our games anyway, so it didn’t matter what happened to City on Saturday,” Sir Alex told Sky Sports. “That’s the way we should look at it and I’ve been saying that for week. If we concentrate on our own game then we’ll be okay.

“I was going to make about seven changes but when I got the result, I felt this was a more important game for us because it could give us a comfortable lead. We can make changes later on in the season. It is realistic; we knew that if we got a good result today then we’d be in a positive position.

“The first half, I thought they dominated for 20 minutes in terms of possession and had a couple of chances from corner kicks. They had some great deliveries from Leighton Baines but we saw it through. In the second half, we played much better without scoring the goals. We were in control.”

In the end, goals from Ryan Giggs and Robin van Persie were enough to seal a slender yet routine win over the Toffees at the Theatre of Dreams. The former, who broke the deadlock on 13 minutes, has now scored in every single Premier League season - 21 in total.

When asked if there are any superlatives left to describe the 39-year-old United legend, Sir Alex was dumbfounded and could not find the words to describe the evergreen star, who rolled back the years to produce another performance of great energy and verve.

“I think they have all been used up and I don’t think he needs any himself,” the boss said. “He lives on and is a fantastic human being. Today, at 38 years of age, or 39, or he might even be 40, he was up and down the pitch and showed fantastic energy for the game. It was wonderful to see.”