When Sir Alex Ferguson won his first championship, with Aberdeen in 1980, it was by whittling down Celtic's lead after seeming to unnerve them with the observation that "the title was theirs to throw away". Nearly 30 years on he conceded that the only team capable of losing the Premier League was Manchester United.
"To this point you are right," he said. "To this very point. But March and April are always the decisive months. We are well aware of that and I adjust my mind to that. My approach to every game is that I am prepared to lose a point or two from the three available. The secret then is to recover immediately from that disappointment.
"Maybe the experience we have gathered over the years has helped us. We don't panic. We very seldom panic. Even in the games we have won late on this season we have kept playing our football and kept patient. We did this at Stoke and Bolton, which is not easy to do when you are chasing titles."
Ferguson greeted the remark by the Chelsea manager, Guus Hiddink, that he would "love it" if he denied Manchester United a third successive Premier League title, with a wry observation. "We have all said things as managers," he said. "I have done it myself a few times; you hope it disturbs your opponents and they get nervous." His kidology has not always worked. As Manchester United and Blackburn fought for the championship in 1995, he publicly informed Kenny Dalglish that his side "would have to do a Devon Loch to lose the title". Dalglish replied laconically that it was a stretch of water he had never heard of.
Ferguson refused to dwell on the prospect that Manchester United might win five trophies this season but stated that, even if they finished with just the Premier League, it would count as a major achievement. "I would be satisfied with just the title," he said. "I'd love to see us win the Champions League; that's my big desire. But at this moment in time the Premier League looks to be our best opportunity and, if we keep our heads straight and focus, then we will have a big chance.
"And next week, against Inter Milan, we will have a big chance again. We have done the hard bit by going there and proving our worth and all we need to do is win our home game next Wednesday.
"If we won a major trophy every year, I'd be delighted – that's the Premier League, the Champions League and the third part is the FA Cup." Interestingly, he did not count winning the Carling Cup as a major achievement as he did in 2006 when his and Manchester United's position was far more precarious. Now, he said of Sunday's victory over Tottenham: "We have won it and so we move on."
The momentum that has been with United since their last league defeat, at Arsenal on 8 November, is their greatest advantage. Ferguson has said that, when they won the treble in 1999, the games came so quickly that nerves did not affect his players because they did not have the time fully to contemplate what they might achieve. "We have got the momentum at the moment and the most pleasing thing is that changing the team is not affecting us now, as it did some years ago," he said.
"We went to Norwich a few seasons back, I played a weakened team, we lost 2-0 and I said to Carlos Queiroz [his then assistant]: 'We are not doing that again.' But this squad seem able to adapt to change quite easily, which gives us a great chance of success."
