In form midfielder Darren Fletcher believes that the experience of Manchester United’s older players will guarantee them the Premier League crown again this season – and one of those veterans completely agrees. 35 year old Paul Scholes has no doubt that the champions can win all their remaining seven games to ensure that the title remains at Old Trafford.
Seasoned players like Scholes, Ryan Giggs and Gary Neville with 28 championship medals between them, have shown they are used to feeling the pressure of a title run in for years and insists that it will keep the rest of the team focused on securing another championship.
Sir Alex Ferguson’s side is currently leading a tightly bunched trio at the top of the table one point ahead of nearest rivals Chelsea and two in front of Arsenal. Chasing an unprecedented fourth successive league title, United took the initiative in the title race with victory over Liverpool last weekend while Chelsea dropped points against Blackburn. United still has to play Chelsea and must also face Champions League chasing Manchester City and Tottenham but is the master of its own destiny.
The in form Fletcher said: ‘The league is in our hands, if we win all our games we’ll be champions, hopefully we can do that. We have experience from the manager to lads like Neville, Scholes and Giggs. They remind you of things in certain situations. The fans also have seen it all before.’
Fletcher also admitted the chance to surpass Liverpool’s total of 18 league titles is added motivation for United. “This club is all about breaking records” he continued “winning four titles in a row is also something that no club has been able to do before”
Scholes, who has already been involved in nine title wins agreed “I’d like to think we’ve got the right players, ones who have been there before and know how tough it is to win the league. The game against Chelsea is going to be massive and we know we need to win that one, but that’s not the only important game. If we want to win the league we’re going to have to win every game. It’s going to be tough but I’m sure we can do it.”
The ginger haired midfielder is not discounting the threat of Arsenal to United’s hopes “You can’t rule out Arsenal, especially with the run in they’ve got. They’ve played all the top teams twice already so they’ll be confident of putting together a good run of results. But the bottom line is that if we win all our matches we’ll win the league”
All three title contenders face the additional commitment of difficult cup ties in the closing weeks of the season. United and Arsenal have tricky home and away Champion Leagues quarter and possible semi finals ahead while Chelsea will want to win their FA Cup semi final in an effort to complete a League and FA Cup double.
The Premiership winning experience that the two United midfield partners are counting upon could well prove to be the deciding factor in the closest title race for many years.
Will United succeed in their goal of taking all 21 points from their last seven matches?
