Vidic: Title Is In Our Hands

Club captain Nemanja Vidic believes the Barclays Premier League title is Manchester United’s to lose after the Reds moved 15 points clear at the top thanks to a 1-0 win over Reading on Saturday.

It wasn’t a classic, but victory was all that mattered after Manchester City lost at Everton earlier in the day and Wayne Rooney’s first half strike was ultimately enough to seal a narrow triumph at Old Trafford ahead of the imminent international break.

Saturday's results tighten United’s grip on the title race with just nine games left to play, but Vidic is wary of complacency and warns his team-mates must not let such a fortunate position slip.

“We will take the three points but we didn’t get them easily,” Vida told MUTV. “You want to win your games and play for your country during the international break without any bad feelings and we have done that. Now, we just have to think about the next games that are coming.

“If you look at the 15-point lead, you have to say that it is a big gap and we shouldn’t let anything change. We have the title in our hands but we have games still to play and some especially tough away games that are traditionally hard for us. Nothing is finished yet, but we’re in a good position.

“Sometimes you can feel the fans in the stands getting nervous because they think about last season. I don’t think we should allow that to happen again. We are in a good position now. We should relax and enjoy playing football. It is a good time for us.”

Saturday’s slender win over the Royals also yielded a fifth successive clean sheet in the Premier League following previous shut-outs against Norwich, QPR, Everton and Fulham. And Vidic feels this defensive solidarity is down to all 11 players on the pitch – not just the back four.

“It’s important. Today we didn’t play good football but we got the three points because we defended as a team and a group,” explained Nemanja.

“I think the team worked well. Maybe it wasn’t a good performance attacking-wise, but I have to give the attackers credit as well because they fought for the team and helped us keep a clean sheet which is why we got the three points.”