Nemanja Vidic expects a tough test at West Ham United tonight as Manchester United try to claim three of the seven points they require to win a 20th championship.

On Sunday United’s 2-0 win over Stoke City stretched their advantage to 15 points over Manchester City, and Vidic said: “Stoke is always a difficult place to go to but we fought for every ball, played some good football and, in the end, I think we deserved to win. It was physical. You know they’re going to get the ball to the forwards, they’re good at set pieces, they’re going to challenge defenders.

"Now it's West Ham and we have to play well again," he added. "They play in a similar style to Stoke – we're going to have long balls and set pieces to deal with. You think you're almost there [winning the title] but you have to win the games."

Praised players
Alex Ferguson, who has no fresh injuries, praised his players' mentality in beating Tony Pulis's side. "I always say you don't leave your character in the dressingroom and I think we saw that against Stoke," he said.

“We weren’t over-anxious about the game – we kept playing the ball, passing it around. We didn’t make a lot of chances, but we’ve done that at Stoke over the last six years and made very few chances but usually won the games: a late goal from (Carlos)Tevez, a late goal from Chicharito (Javier Hernandez). The performance and the character the players showed was terrific.”

Ferguson added: “We have no injuries from Sunday. It was a tough game, certainly. But there were no injuries and that is a blessing.

"We have a good, strong squad. We took 20 players with us to Stoke and those 20 players will go with us again."
Guardian Service