HE'S A MAN with a well-earned reputation for coming prepared so when Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson took the stage at Old Trafford yesterday it was hard to avoid the thought that his already deeply scarlet complexion might be a ploy to save time when the questions start coming and he proceeds to get angry.

The event starts with a warning from one of the club's press officer that there are to be no questions about events in London over the weekend, but who is she kidding?

Ferguson continued to look fairly relaxed as it was repeatedly suggested that he had made a potentially calamitous mistake with his team selection on Saturday against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.

As the club official intervened for the umpteenth time he finally relented and answered serenely that he had done no more than he felt necessary to maximise his side's chances of making it to Moscow. "I had to give the team the best chance of making it to a European Cup final," he said.

"I've said many times that this club should have had more success in Europe and I wanted to give them every chance of having some this time. It was easy for me to pick the team for Saturday."

Everyone in these situations likes to have it both ways and the irony was apparently missed by the manager when he was then asked whether he had perhaps handed an advantage to Barcelona by starting Wayne Rooney and Nemanja Vidic - and thereby, it was clearly implied - placing them in harm's way.

Pushed about the possibility that the defeat might prompt a dramatic downturn in the side's fortunes he remained calm. "Look, we signed up to play 38 league games and we'll play 38. If we have to play the last two to win the league then so be it. As it is, we're sitting here now with two games left, a European semi-final tomorrow, then a home game against West Ham on Saturday followed by one at Wigan after which we expect to be champions. Disaster!" he concluded extravagantly before sitting back and beaming with self-satisfaction.

Ferguson has a point. His side are favourites to win this evening and remain in pole position to retain the Premier League title. And yet his decision to rest so many key players for such an important game at Stamford Bridge still looks like a major error.

There was, once again, a determination to blame Saturday's defeat on the referee. "We should be sitting here as champions," he said, "but some decisions have gone against us, bad decisions went against us."

It's safe to assume, then, that the Scot won't be thrilled when he hears Herbert Fandel is in charge tonight. The German has previously sent off both Roy Keane and Paul Scholes in Champions League games and upon hearing he had been appointed to oversee one of this season's encounter with Sporting Lisbon, Ferguson asked: "Have we a supply of Mogadon?"

He was sharper when asked about his team's prospects of turning last week's goalless away draw into a victory. A reporter had barely finished a lengthy question about the manager's repeated observation in the past that such results are not really good enough, a point, the hack remarked, that was supported by United's elimination in 2002 and 2004 after scoreless first legs in Monaco and Real.

"Must have been why I said it," remarked the 66-year-old with fairly devastating dryness.