Ferguson hails steely Spurs win

Sir Alex Ferguson said Manchester United’s 3-1 win at Tottenham on Sunday proves they are ready for a tense run home in the Premier League.

United are two points behind leaders Manchester City thanks to Wayne Rooney’s goal and a double from Ashley Young, with the top two set to meet in a showdown at Etihad Stadium on April 30.

“I think it’s difficult to say because anything can happen. You can drop surprise points,” Ferguson said.

“I think that’ll happen, both teams will drop points, but the important thing is not dropping as many as your opponent.”

“We’re experienced, we won’t get nervous, we’re enjoying it and the battling performance we gave today against a very good team tells you that we’re well up for it.”

Ferguson admitted his side had been below-par for parts of the game, in part due to a strategy that did not pay dividends in the first half.

“I don’t know how to explain it but we certainly carried it off well today,” Ferguson said.

“It was a great performance by Tottenham in the first half – and maybe we got our tactics wrong in the first half – but in the second half we did improve and pushed up further. In the first half we tried to drop off and bring them onto us but it didn’t work.”

“We had a bit of luck scoring just before half-time with probably our first strike at goal – a nice finish from Wayne.”

“The scoreline at half-time was a killer for Tottenham. They were probably sitting in the dressing-room wondering how they’d gone down 1-0 because they’d played ever so well.”

Ferguson is optimistic about his side’s push for a 20th top-flight title especially with several players returning from injury.

“We know exactly what we have to do,” Ferguson said.

“The good thing is that I’ve got players back – Anderson’s back now, (Tom) Cleverley’s back next week, (Chris) Smalling will be fit for Thursday’s game (against Athletic Bilbao), players are coming back, and with a full squad it gives us a better chance.”

Spurs boss Harry Redknapp said he was disappointed to be a goal down at half-time, after dominating the first 45 minutes of play.

“I couldn’t believe we came in 1-0 down,” he said.

“It was everything we worked on during the week, Jake Livermore and Sandro were top class. Really there was only one team who should have been in front at half-time and we came in 1-0 down.”

“I couldn’t have asked more from the players. Sometimes you need the luck and we didn’t get any today.”

Despite two league defeats in succession to Arsenal and now Manchester United, Redknapp is confident Spurs can still secure a Champions League berth.

“We’ve been on an incredible run and just had a blip last weekend against Arsenal,” he said.

“I want to finish third, I want to finish above Arsenal and Chelsea. That’s what we’re capable of doing and that’s where I want us to be.”