Match Preview

Last updated : 26 August 2007 By Editor

Ferguson:

"We will win the game on Sunday. Our performance level will win the game for us. There is no question Tottenham will come here with a great determination to help their manager. But with the ability in this team, I know the results we have been having will not carry on for long.

"Anderson has had a full week's training.

"He wasn't involved with Brazil during the week, which gave us the opportunity to get more training into him. He is looking much better.

"He and Carlos Tevez have looked good this week and he will be involved tomorrow."


On the start to the season:

"Tevez did well against City, but he tired in the last 20 minutes and that's a result of the adrenaline going from his first game at Portsmouth, when he was fantastic. I think it was just a bizarre game and a bizarre result. You can't judge Manchester United in those circumstances.

"We are missing chances, and in terms of goals scored it's easy to criticise us, but if you look at the other side of it, the number of chances made and the comparison with last season's first three games [10 goals] we had almost twice the number of chances this season.

"I'll ride along with it. I'll be patient, because the performance level is very, very good. I mean, there's not been a derby game in the history of the world where the home team didn't get a corner kick. Not even when I was playing with Rangers against Celtic.

"We hadn't won the league back in 92-93, so we were in unknown territory and we actually conceded the first ever goal in the Premier League at Sheffield United in our first game, so that was a right good start. Then we lost to Everton at home and drew with Ipswich. Our first result was a win at Southampton, and you have to get that first result quickly. After that, the consistency came.

"We lost Dion Dublin but got Eric Cantona. He was the catalyst because he brought the confidence and arrogance to our play and more or less opened the door for us. I think we'd probably have won the title, but he made certain of it. It was a much bigger crisis back then."


About Saha:

"He's trained well in the past couple of weeks," .

"If Louis feels good about himself, he will be involved [against Spurs]. I don't think he'll be fit enough to start, he'll probably be on the bench. He gives us options because he's a different type of striker to what we have. He has explosive feet, an athletic presence and is good in the air. In the first half of last season he was terrific. He got us about 15 goals up to the beginning of December, and if he'd stayed fit, he'd maybe have got us 30 goals."

About Martin Jol:

"The difference between Martin Jol and me is that I've been here 20 years.

"When I first came to this club I faced all that expectation too, because we hadn't won the league in umpteen years. Martin is new at the club and Spurs haven't won the league for 45 years, so that's quite a lot of expectation, and you are not surprised at the criticism. You are only surprised at the way it all started.

"I was pleased to see Daniel Levy come out in support of him because Jol is a decent guy. His work in Holland was outstanding, and he did a good job for Tottenham last year. Knee-jerk reactions don't necessarily come from the board, the press play a part too, but still you wonder where these things start.

"In modern football you get in some of these directors' rooms and boardrooms and you see four or five directors and about 35 hangers-on. And they've all got a voice. That's often where the seed is sown. When I first came to United they had something they called the second board. They used to meet every Monday afternoon in the Grill Room at Old Trafford, assess results, get the axe out for Alex Ferguson, that type of thing. That's the kind of rubbish you had even 20 years ago. I think a lot of clubs have a similar problem - it sort of comes with the corporate hospitality packages nowadays - and perhaps Tottenham suffer from it more than most."

Wes Brown:

"We could have beaten them by six.

"We pressurised them for most of the game but missed some really good chances and somehow they managed to keep us out.

"That kind of thing happens sometimes. All you can do is hold your hands up, try to do the same things in the next game and think a bit more positively about putting the ball in the net.

"Don't get me wrong, we don't want to be this far behind Chelsea already but no-one is too worried at the moment.

"As the season has gone on in previous years, we have always come back into it.

"I know it is easy for me to say that but history proves it has happened and it can happen again.

"I also think the middle ranking teams will take more points off the top four. There are a lot of teams now who have built up their squads and, as we have found out already, they will definitely give problems to the bigger teams."


Michael Carrick:

"It's a game we want to win, simple as that, and nothing has changed for us. We have gone about the first three games in a positive way and I'm sure if we create the same amount of chances we will score." Carrick insists that United's poor start is not causing sleepless nights in the Old Trafford dressing room. "We're playing well but we just can't convert the chances.

"It's early days as far as United are concerned and we are just thinking about ourselves and getting back on track. I know we haven't won but there's not a lot wrong with our performances. We're not getting too down about things. "I am confident that to play like we have been and with people to come back into the team who have been injured for the past few weeks, it can only get better.

"We can't afford to drop too many points but it depends on everyone. If one team gets away and wins all their games then you have a problem but as it goes, I think it's going to be a bit tighter. "I think all round there may be a few more points dropped. Teams are a lot stronger and have maybe closed the gap a little bit. Only time will tell."

About his former manager Martin Jol:

"Before he went to the club it was up and down, good and bad, but since he's been there they've had the best finishes they could have hoped for. I don't really know what more they could have asked of him.

"Obviously now that they have spent a bit of money they are hoping for the top four but all this after just a week of the season? Well, I ask you.

"He was great for me and the other lads liked him as well. You don't get the results they did by being against the manager. Having two good seasons like that. I suppose nothing surprises me in football these days but it's just incredible to happen so quickly."


Martin Jol about his bad week:

"If my missus had gone to Spain and I saw pictures of her, I would be gutted. [comparison with his chairman]

"But I always realised she would come back. She speaks French, Dutch, English but not Spanish, so she couldn't have talked to the bugger [Ramos]. So she would come back to me.

"If I would have said to the chairman when I took the job [in November 2004] 'I will give you two top-five finishes in the next two seasons' he would have laughed at me - but we did it.

"I try to think realistically and analyse things. If you said to Sam Allardyce 'You will be in the top five for the next two seasons' he would be so happy. I feel good, no problem. It would be a big gamble to go for someone else. I gave them a lot of continuity."


BBC Squads:

Manchester United skipper Gary Neville has been ruled out for two more weeks after picking up a thigh injury.

Striker Louis Saha is likely to be on the bench, keeper Edwin van der Sar (foot) is also available and Anderson is set to make his competitive bow.

Gareth Bale could make his Tottenham debut and Dimitar Berbatov may return but Darren Bent (thigh) is a doubt.

Benoit Assou-Ekotto, Michael Dawson, Younes Kaboul, Ledley King and Aaron Lennon are all out.

Man Utd (from): Van der Sar, Kuszczak, Heaton, Brown, Ferdinand, Vidic, O'Shea, Evra, Silvestre, Fletcher, Eagles, Carrick, Scholes, Hargreaves, Nani, Anderson, Giggs, Saha, Tevez.

Tottenham (from): Robinson, Cerny, Chimbonda, Bale, Lee, Stalteri, Gardner, Rocha, Zokora, Tainio, Jenas, Routledge, Malbranque, Boateng, Huddlestone, Ghaly, Murphy, Taarabt, Berbatov, Bent, Keane, Defoe.


BBC weather for M16 0RA:

Sunny and 19°C.