Confident Ferguson welcomes Chelsea to title race

With Arsenal dropping points for the second time in four days, and blowing the chance to exert some pressure on the Premier League leaders, who themselves failed to win at Newcastle, Chelsea have emerged as the most likely threat to United’s dream of landing a record 19th championship.

The Blues have collected 19 points from a possible 21 since the beginning of March, a run that started with their Stamford Bridge defeat of United that landed Ferguson with a five-game touchline ban.

As Chelsea still have to face the Red Devils at Old Trafford on May 8, Petr Cech is not alone in thinking the Londoners can haul back United’s current six-point advantage to retain their crown.

Ferguson has far more faith in his troops than that.

And rather than fear Chelsea’s late season surge, the Scot actually believes it will push his side over the finishing line.

“It is good to know someone is behind you,” he said.

“You have to recognise who is there because we cannot become complacent.

“In that sense we use our experience of years past in situations like this. Hopefully it will get us where we want to go.”

In theory, today represents one of the easier fixtures of the season.

Historians need to trawl back to August 1992 for the last Everton win at Old Trafford, since when they have only managed three draws amid a dire sequence of 14 defeats.

It is 2005 since they last claimed a point, thanks to an early James McFadden goal.

However, after a difficult start to the season, David Moyes’s side are top of the form table and even retain an outside chance of landing a Europa League spot, although that would depend on Manchester City finishing outside the top four.

Little wonder Moyes has repeatedly been linked with the United job in recent seasons. And Ferguson is a firm fan.

“It’s amazing what David has done,” said the Red Devils chief.

“He has had to cope with a mountain of injuries over the last few weeks but Everton have still churned out the results.

“Even last season when he was without Phil Jagielka he still got them motivated.

“What he did well two or three years ago was to use the money he had available to get all his younger players on long-term contracts.

“That created a consistency in his squad which is proving very beneficial now.

“He brings people in to freshen his team up and they are able to do a job.”

Ferguson knows that victory today will leave United requiring just seven points from their final four games to finish top.

With a Champions League semi-final against Schalke to play as well, little wonder he is so delighted to welcome back young defender Rafael.

Even more importantly, Scotland captain Darren Fletcher, who has been sidelined by a virus since the March 6 defeat at Liverpool, is almost ready to end an absence which currently stands at nine games.

“Darren is back training now,” said Ferguson.

“He has had a good week and might be available in 10 days’ time.

“He is a very important player to come back.

“In big games Darren has excelled over the years because he has the knowledge and discipline to carry out any job you want him to do.

“When he does come back he will go straight into the team.”

Ferguson is already looking at the return clash with Schalke at Old Trafford on May 4 as a likely comeback date.

For the present though, he is concentrating purely on Everton, knowing how precious those three points could prove to be.

“If we win tomorrow, we will only have four games left and we will have a six-point lead,” he said.

“That is the way I am looking at it. I am not looking beyond that.”

Carlo Ancelotti has revealed he is considering gambling Chelsea’s entire season – and possibly his own future – on Fernando Torres in today’s game against West Ham.

Blues manager Ancelotti refused to rule out resting the red-hot Didier Drogba and recalling £50m flop Torres for the must-win game at Stamford Bridge.

Ditching Drogba for a player who has now gone 893 minutes without finding the net would be an almighty gamble by Ancelotti, but it is one he would be willing to take.

“Maybe I can use some rotation to maintain the players’ freshness,” Ancelotti said.

“It wouldn’t be easy to leave Drogba out, but there’s a chance we could leave him out on Saturday.

“We started with Torres against (Manchester) City.

“We won the game when Didier came on.

“It might be a good solution to give him the last 30 minutes of the game because he’s fresh and fit.”

What Ancelotti failed to point out was that Chelsea only beat City last month after Torres had left the field.

In fact, the champions have scored just one goal in their their last eight matches while the striker has been on the pitch, with the remaining 10 coming during his absence.