25 Minutes Of Wow …
A 25 minute purple patch, in which United devoured Bolton, has encouraged Sir Alex Ferguson and his players to believe that they can beat Chelsea to the title
Ferguson said: ” I thought the first 25 minutes in terms of our penetration and the chances we created was our best performance for two or three years.There is now a growing confidence within the club and, as a group, the players are looking really strong. It does not matter which 11 I put out there at the minute because they’re all in it together.
“I’m sure no one else will come here and get that kind of result. Bolton have got such a good home record it’s difficult to even win here so I’m absolutely delighted. There is a great team spirit and through that I think we can have a really good go. Chelsea have laid down a marker for everyone and we want to challenge them.”
Full-back Gary Neville said: “It was a brilliant victory. To win at Bolton, full stop, is fantastic - but to win in the way that we did was incredible. For 20 minutes in the first half I was thinking this is too good to be true.
“It was one of the best opening 20 minutes of football I’ve seen or played in for a long, long time. The victory over Liverpool last weekend put us in a great frame of mind and the confidence is sky-high at the moment.”
United dazzled in a 25 minute first half spell, creating chance after chance, which left Bolton punch-drunk.
Veteran Bolton midfielder Gary Speed said: “Sometimes you just have to hold your hands up. In the first 20 to 25 minutes they were fantastic - we could not get near them. We are all disappointed but we could have played the greatest game we have ever played and still not beaten them.”
Boss Sam Allardyce said: “We just could not compete with them on the day. We might be close to Manchester United in the table - but in terms of spending power and quality of squad, the difference really showed.
“We can compete with most teams, but when the top boys are on song, it is very different. In the end, the title will come down to a battle between United’s flair and Chelsea’s resilience. The team which suffers the least number of injuries will probably come out on top at the end of the season.”
For the past two seasons United have trailed Chelsea by more than ten points at the end of October. Now, Sir Alex Ferguson’s men are matching the west London team stride for stride. Could this be United’s year?
Captain Neville is not quite ready to declare United favourites but is happy that for the most part, his team has done all that has been required of it so far.
“I’m sure Chelsea will have taken note of this result but it’s still early on in the season. There are still a lot of matches to win and a lot of points to play for before we actually start counting ourselves in the title race but we’ve certainly given ourselves a great chance.” AU
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