O'Shea not giving up on United just yet

SOCCER/English FA Premiership: Irish international defender John O'Shea has insisted he is going nowhere despite speculation linking him with a move away from Manchester United.

O'Shea has seen his first-team opportunities drastically reduced following the arrival of Gabriel Heinze and has not started a Premiership game since the 1-1 home draw with Middlesbrough at the beginning of October.

At one stage, the 23-year-old was shunted into central midfield as Alex Ferguson looked for a solution to his early-season injury crisis, but that experiment appears to have been abandoned.

O'Shea was an unused substitute for Saturday's 3-0 win at West Brom but he is expected to turn out in central defence tomorrow as United look to book an English League Cup semi-final spot at the expense of Arsenal.

But the rumour-mill has been suggesting the Waterford man player will not be around to play in them if they do get through, with Newcastle United regarded as one potential destination.

However, O'Shea has been quick to quell the transfer talk, insisting that, after 132 appearances, he has no intention of quitting Old Trafford.

"There is no way I am leaving Old Trafford," he said. "I am definitely staying, without a doubt, and, fingers crossed, I will be here for a long time to come.

"When you are playing for Manchester United, you are going to face pressure. I have faced it before, no doubt I will face it again in the future.

"What you have to do is make sure when you get a chance, you put the manager under pressure not to leave you out."

O'Shea is not the only one feeling the pressure it seems, with one of tomorrow night's likely opponents, Freddie Ljungberg, yesterday accusing Arsenal of lacking fighting spirit in Sunday's 2-1 defeat at Liverpool - and he was joined in his criticism by skipper Patrick Vieira.

"Liverpool wanted to have a fight and it was a fight, a real battle," said the Swedish international. "We talked about it at half-time and we were not pleased about how we'd played in that first half at all. When you want to play the ball on the floor - and we do, there's no question about that - you have to get it down on the floor, but sometimes you have to battle to get the ball in the first place."

Vieira said the team had lost the togetherness that had carried them through last season undefeated in the Premiership.

Ljungberg's comments would have been unprecedented a month ago when the Premiership title seemed Arsenal's for the taking. They went into the game against Manchester United on the back of a 49-game unbeaten run, but were out-muscled in an ill-tempered match that saw manager Arsene Wenger subsequently charged with misconduct for post-match remarks made about United striker Ruud van Nistelrooy. Wenger now faces an FA hearing on December 16th.

"We've lost a bit of the togetherness you need to win games. Three or four years ago we maybe would've won that game at Anfield."

Wenger, meanwhile, believes his young Gunners will learn another valuable lesson in their footballing "education" from tomorrow's quarter-final.

Both Wenger and his Old Trafford counterpart Ferguson are set to give several of their up-and-coming players a further taste of first-team football on the night.

The Frenchman has already seen a youthful Arsenal side beat the likes of Manchester City and Everton in previous rounds, with their young Italian forward Arturo Lupoli netting twice in the 3-1 win over what was a strong Everton side last month.

And Wenger reflected: "One or two experienced players will play, certainly, but many young players will play.

Wenger believes it is vital Arsenal keep producing talented youngsters so the club does not have to continually rely on signing new players in order to strengthen the squad. "I feel that when you have good youngsters, the club is always in a situation where the future does not depend on the finances," he said.

"Also because we cannot keep up with the big clubs financially, we have to try and produce our own players."