SOCCER: Alex Ferguson believes Manchester United's 2-0 victory over Arsenal yesterday has given his side "an outstanding chance" of catching Chelsea at the top of the Premiership.

United's ninth successive win, with second-half goals from Wayne Rooney and Park Ji-Sung, has left them seven points adrift with only five games to go. Chelsea also have a superior goal difference but United can reduce the gap to four points by beating Sunderland at Old Trafford on Friday, and Ferguson believes Bolton can do him a favour when Chelsea travel to the Reebok Stadium on Saturday.

"Do you think Bolton will lose five games in a row? Because I don't think so. Remember, too, that Chelsea have to go to Blackburn, which is another tough game, and then they play at Newcastle on the last day of the season when it will be Alan Shearer's last game for the club. So we have several things in our favour.

"We need them to drop points. In fact, we need a collapse, but it can happen, as we have seen in the past. Chelsea have some tough away games coming up. It happened to us in 1992 when we lost three games and drew one over Easter and lost the title to Leeds United.

"We believe we are capable of going all the way and that if we win our remaining games it will give us an outstanding chance. We've got to go to Stamford Bridge (on April 29th) and win but we've still got a great chance, absolutely. The game at Chelsea will be the title decider."

On the day Old Trafford attracted its best-ever attendance for a United game of 70,908, setting a new Premiership high in the process, Ferguson set his sights on achieving another milestone, equalling the club's record of 14 successive wins by maintaining their victorious form until the end of the season.

Apparently unconcerned by the manner in which Chelsea's 10 men came back from a goal down to put four past West Ham, he is adamant such a scenario could yet result in the ninth Premiership title of his 20-year reign.

"We need another five victories, starting on Friday, and the great thing is that we're playing with such great verve and enthusiasm. The players are enjoying themselves and I'm enjoying watching them. Our form has been excellent and right now we are seeing Manchester United at their very best - exciting, entertaining and always looking for goals."

Ferguson singled out Rooney for special acclaim, describing him as "absolutely sensational" after the England forward had opened the scoring and then set up Park for the second. He also denounced stories in some of the Sunday newspapers that Rooney had accumulated £700,000 of gambling debts, allegations that have led to the Football Association confirming that Sven-Goran Eriksson is sufficiently concerned that he will ring the player to see if he has a problem.

"It's absolute rubbish," said Ferguson. "I've said it time and again. We have a media that wants to examine every part of players' lives. They had George Best in the 60s, then Paul Gascoigne came along, then David Beckham. They have been searching for someone new to fill a headline and then along comes Wayne. It's pathetic, but unfortunately it's the age we live in. They do it purely to sell newspapers but we know Wayne, we know what he is like and we're not worried at all. We just have to dismiss it."

Rooney was later asked if the stories had affected him. "Look at my performance," he replied, "and you will be able to answer that question yourself."

Arsenal's manager Arsene Wenger clearly saves his most unexpected decisions about strikers for matches against Manchester United. Last season's FA Cup final saw the Arsenal manager choose Dennis Bergkamp in an unsuited role as a lone frontman and get away with it as his team triumphed undeservedly in a penalty shoot-out. Yesterday he left Thierry Henry on the bench for all but 20 minutes but this time without a happy ending, and the selection will be picked over and criticised even if Wenger explained that his top scorer and captain was too tired to have started.

Wenger became tetchy when pressed on the omission of the France forward for a match he felt had to be won in the battle for fourth spot.

"He had not recovered from Wednesday night," he said, referring to the game at Juventus. "He was not injured. He plays more games (than anyone), it's as simple as that."

Wenger said: "I don't feel that was a major factor today in the game. We have lost here with Thierry Henry on the pitch . . . we did not concede the first goal because Thierry Henry was on the bench. Look at the game and analyse it overall. I believe Manchester United deserved to win because they were sharper."

Guardian Service

Chelsea

Bolton (away) April 15th

Everton (home) April 17th

Man United (home) April 29th

Blackburn (away) May 2nd

Newcastle (away) May 7th

Manchester United

Sunderland (home) April 14th

Tottenham (away) April 17th

Middlesbrough (home) April 23rd

Chelsea (away) April 29th

Charlton (home) May 7th