Pre Match: Manchester United v Blackburn

This is match number 15 and it is important to win this match and it is important to improve the number of goals. United should take this opportunity. As they leveled the point last week, now they have to win with more goals to keep on chasing Chelsea closely.

SIR ALEX: TIME TO WAKE UP

Only goal difference separates Manchester United and Chelsea at the top of the table, but Sir Alex Ferguson insists his team must improve.

The United manager, a stickler for demanding nothing but the best, has called for his players to “wake up” if they want to prise the Barclays Premier League trophy away from the Londoners’ grasp.

“The last two performances in the league haven’t been good enough,” Sir Alex said in Glasgow this week. “We’ve not played well. We should have lost by six goals at Aston Villa but somehow we got a point out of it. And against Wigan we made things difficult for ourselves – we could have won by five or six.

“We’ve been a bit more fortunate than some of the other sides who haven’t played well, though. At least we took something from the games.”

That fighting spirit, the ability to grind out results even when the side isn’t playing well, pleases the boss.

“At least I know I’ve got players who are prepared to do something – and did something – about situations like the one we found ourselves in at Villa Park. That says a lot about the character of the human beings I’ve got, which is satisfying for me.”

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