United display unwavering resilience

Manchester United 3 Tottenham Hotspur 1:THE TITLE RACE has come down to a staring contest and Manchester United give the impression they are not going to blink first. "No Wayne Rooney and no Rio Ferdinand," Harry Redknapp, the Tottenham manager, reflected before leaving Old Trafford. "I thought we could have a real good go here." But their opponents were too resilient.

Alex Ferguson’s side may not have played the kind of football to bring down the birds from the eaves of the stadium but they displayed wit and gumption and a sense of calm assurance that comes from having a team of serial trophy-collectors.

When a team is blessed with someone of the class and achievement of Ryan Giggs, or a passer of Paul Scholes’s refinement, it can seem strange they are depicted as a one-man operation. Without their leading scorer, United lose some of their star-dust, naturally, but they are still primed in the art of knowing how to win football matches.

Not a hint of panic infiltrated the team once Ledley King’s header punctured the mood at Old Trafford. They merely rolled up their sleeves and set about the job of maintaining their pressure on Chelsea as the season tumbles towards its most intriguing weekend yet.

Sunday is now circled in red on the football calendar as the point when, in all probability, the championship will be settled. Chelsea, in their penultimate match, go to Anfield, a ground where many aspiring title-winners have been chopped down to size over the years and, for one weekend only, it will be okay for United supporters to cheer on the old enemy.

But it works both ways. How many Liverpool fans, you wonder, might begrudgingly want their side to lose knowing that the alternative could be presenting United with their 19th league championship? Liverpool’s collection stands at 18 and, if the trophy remains at Old Trafford for a fourth successive year, the team from Manchester will hold the distinction as English football’s most prolific league winners. For a club with Liverpool’s pride, it could be a brutal way to lose the record they held for so long.

United, though, have a tricky assignment of their own, taking on a Sunderland side that have lost only twice at the Stadium of Light this season.

They also have to cope without Rooney, with Ferguson estimating that the striker’s groin injury would keep him out for two to three weeks.

His team have looked ordinary at times without their leading scorer, lacking the same menace and penetration.

The first half on Saturday was a case in point and Redknapp was entitled to be frustrated that his own side, in the fourth Champions League place, did not pass the ball well enough to take advantage.

They had arrived in Manchester with Ferguson describing them as the best Spurs side he had seen in his 23 years at Old Trafford but the Tottenham manager was left to reflect that “some of our players just weren’t at it”. He did not name names but Jermain Defoe and Roman Pavlyuchenko both come to mind and Wilson Palacios and Tom Huddlestone were distinctly second best to Scholes and Giggs in midfield.

Scholes, in particular, is finishing the season as though seemingly immune to fatigue.

Dimitar Berbatov’s performance was encouraging for United, too. The Bulgarian tends to play well against his former club and was one of the better players once the game opened up.

One incisive run and back-heel led to the first of Giggs’ two penalties, when Benoit Assou-Ekotto fouled Patrice Evra, and there was a sense after the game that Berbatov might have replenished some of the confidence that had evaporated during a period in which he has come under intense scrutiny, inside and outside the club.

“All we ask from Berba is a little bit of something else that we haven’t seen for a while,” Mike Phelan, the assistant manager, said. “We have seen him do it in the past and, when we keep pushing him and pushing him and he responds the right way, he is a handful for anyone.”

The same applies to Nani, another player who can frustrate and delight in equal measure. He, like Berbatov, has heard the crowd’s ire at times but, overall, he has had a decent season, certainly much improved from last year, and it was an audacious chip for United’s second goal.

Nani was also involved for the second penalty, with Palacios the offender. Guardian Service