Ferguson turns up heat on rivals City

After picking up just seven points from their last seven Barclays Premier League away games, City have now surrendered the initiative in the battle for domestic supremacy. Even worse, the Blues are facing the prospect of slipping four points behind their fiercest rivals, who visit relegation-threatened Wolves at the weekend, before they can do something about it in what promises to be tough encounter with Chelsea at the Etihad Stadium on 21 March.

Ferguson took the opportunity to remind the Blues what they probably already knew; Manchester United are not going to fold. “We have that experience and it does help,” said the United manager.

“We won’t get nervous. Against West Brom we kept playing our football even at 1-0 when the fans were thinking ‘just get us a second’. It didn’t concern the players one bit. It is good to see that kind of temperament.”

It is the kind of attitude that is only built up through years of scrapping for major honours and United’s significant advantage in a season when their squad has been decimated by injuries. Nani and Anderson are the latest to succumb, although at least with the former, his present absence with an injury picked up on the training ground should not be long term.

United’s newly-gained league status should sharpen minds ahead of this week’s return encounter with Bilbao.

While Ferguson would never merely give a game up, he is highly unlikely to ask his first-choice XI to turn around a tie they should really have no chance in anyway such was the brilliance of the Basque outfit at Old Trafford.

Paul Scholes and Rio Ferdinand are unlikely to be risked in the return leg and it would be no surprise if Michael Carrick and Wayne Rooney started the match watching from the bench as Ferguson attempts to keep key men fresh for the weekend trip to Molineux.