Manchester United have lost two titles at West Ham, and Sir Alex Ferguson feels it so personally he never lets anyone forget it.
As the defending champions head back to Upton Park for a fixture always keenly anticipated by the home side and their fans – Alan Pardew recently admitted to Ferguson that West Ham seem to psyche themselves up for the Manchester United game more than any other – the Premier League's most experienced campaigner preferred to focus on another difficult away ground where a hard-fought victory set his side on its current seven-match winning streak.
It is too early to talk in terms of titles being won, though Ferguson concedes United are in a stronger position than he thought they would be at this stage of the season, and believes the 1-0 win at Stoke on Boxing Day could be their most significant result so far.
"We knew from the outset we would have to go all the way to Japan, miss a few games and start playing catch up when we got home," Ferguson said. "That's how it turned out, but I never imagined we'd catch up so quickly, I thought it would take longer to get back on top. It isn't easy going out to Japan, and we had a difficult game at Stoke when we got back. Some good teams have found it hard there and so did we. It's not an easy place to go, and we didn't play particularly well, but we managed to scrape through with a late goal and we've never looked back.
"That is looking like a huge result for us now, because we have kicked on from there while others have dropped points. We've had injuries, but we have fantastic quality in reserve and we've coped. Now we've got players coming back, we've hit the top and we feel like we can go anywhere and win."
Liverpool re-established themselves as United's main rivals with their win over Chelsea last weekend, though have since been knocked out of the FA Cup by Everton and lost Steven Gerrard to a hamstring injury that could keep him out for a month. "It's too early to say what will happen at the end of the season, I think most eyes will be on Chelsea now to see how they recover from that defeat," Ferguson said. "Obviously Liverpool were the better team last week but the sending off didn't help Chelsea, and it still took a late goal to settle the game.
"Liverpool have taken 10 points from 12 against the top teams this season and that's a significant improvement, but there are two big games coming up in March that should tell us a lot. We play Liverpool and Chelsea play Arsenal. It's going to be tight. Points will be dropped. You can guarantee that."
