Sir Alex Ferguson believes Manchester City's desperation for a first major trophy in 35 years could prove decisive at Wembley if Manchester United capitalise on their greater experience of the big occasion.
United enter the FA Cup semi-final without the suspended Wayne Rooney but pursuing a repeat of their Champions League, Premier League and FA Cup treble of 1999, while City face another contest with Tottenham Hotspur to qualify for the Champions League for the first time. Ferguson was careful to avoid inflaming local hostilities ahead of a crucial derby in the capital, claiming City's wealthy owners "were correct" to invest in "big plans" and highlighting the individual experience in Roberto Mancini's squad.
However, the United manager does believe the Wembley factor, and City's lack of trophies, could be a factor in the semi-final. "It's possible," Ferguson said. "But I don't know the mental side of their players because I've not worked with any of them apart from Tevez of course. I know my own players and, obviously, they have been used to big-game situations many times. We don't have to conquer that.
"It can be very difficult to block out the occasion, simply because sometimes the occasion overrides everything else. And Wembley is an occasion stadium. When you go there it's for an important reason and that can affect some players. I don't think there's any doubt about that. It's a fact. All we can do is prepare our players properly, make sure the information you give them is fine, and trust that their own temperament, and their own beliefs, come into it."
Dimitar Berbatov is expected to return to the United starting line-up in the absence of Rooney and Ferguson said the outstanding form of Javier Hernández has given him no option but to leave the Premier League's leading goalscorer on the bench recently.
"It's unfortunate for Dimitar because he's a fantastic player, but the reasons are obvious," the United manager said. "The emergence of Hernández in the last couple of months has been startling. He's improving all the time, he's getting stronger and it's very difficult to leave a player out when he hits that kind of form.
"He's fantastic, with a natural instinct to move about the box. There have been a few top strikers who've had that quality. Ole [Gunnar Solksjaer] was one, always being in space in the box, and having a natural instinct to do that. [Gary] Lineker probably never scored a good goal in his life. It would always come off his chest, his shin or he would get a rebound off the goalkeeper. But he was always in really good areas, and the boy Hernández is the same."
Ferguson also had another slight dig at Rooney's agent, Paul Stretford, when asked if United's hopes of a treble were a convincing retort to claims the squad was on the wane, aired at the time of the striker's contract dispute last year. He said: "I shouldn't really need to sell that. I don't think he actually really meant that. I think he was prompted on that one. Probably thought he could make me angry."
