GIDDYOMETERS RISING

Far too much giddiness and use of the “m” word of late dontcha think? Ferdinand denies playing mind games in the MEN:

"It wasn't us being cute and canny; we just literally did not envisage anybody dropping points. That was how the form was. There was nothing really to suggest otherwise. Nobody was dropping points around us, so we needed to keep just winning to stay clear of Liverpool. It was as simple as that.

"In my mind, and in a lot of the lads' minds, we are still concentrating all our efforts on finishing second. If anything happens above and beyond that, it would, of course, be fantastic.

"But to think about anything other than that at the moment would be silly. We are five points ahead of Liverpool now, but there is no way our foot will come off the pedal. We cannot afford to become complacent in pursuit of that second spot.

"Last weekend hasn't changed my attitude to the situation at all.

"That's not to say we have given up on anything else, or are not looking to win all our remaining matches. If we did win the rest, then who knows what could happen? If our form leads to bigger and better things, then that would be great. But I genuinely believe it is not for us to go out there and say `we are going to do this' and `we are going to do that'. I don't work in that way. I never have. It is not the way Man United work either.

"If we are going to win something, then we'd rather other people do the talking and we just get on with doing the business.

"Winning the title is a massive achievement, no matter how you win it. But if you do it when you have been behind, then there is no better fairytale. But I don't want to even talk about that because I don't want to tempt fate.

"The Arsenal game on Sunday is massive. That's why talking about the league is pointless because we have so many big games ahead of us. It can all change in an instant.

Beckham in the Mirror:

"I think it can go all the way to the wire. I really do. You never know because Chelsea still have a seven-point advantage but I do think it's going to be very close because United are playing well.

"Their performances are great, they are scoring goals and they have so many players within the team who can get goals like Wayne Rooney, Ruud and Saha. And they are all playing well.

"Chelsea have got a great team and a strong manager so we will see but I think United are on a roll and it's going to be much closer than people expect. I'm really looking forward to seeing what happens."