Before Manchester United played on Boxing Day, Ferguson spoke out against those who doubted the strength of his squad. Despite being two points clear at the top, several criticisms had come of Sir Alex’s team, saying they didn’t have the strength in depth as Chelsea.
“One thing that niggles me is when I hear someone say ‘They’re a good team but they have nothing below their first-choice XI’. I regard that as short-sighted and rather an insult to the players who make up our squad and to myself – as if I hadn’t bothered to build quality in depth.”
Later that day, Manchester United beat Wigan Athletic at home, despite playing without captain Gary Neville, Rio Ferdinand, Ryan Giggs, Michael Carrick, Louis Saha, and with Cristiano Ronaldo coming on as a sub at half time. Down south, Chelsea drew at home with Reading.
Ferguson was more than happy to talk to the press about his squad after the match. “We made some changes, which was important also, because I have to utilise the pool [of players] as best I can. It is their opportunity to bring freshness into the team. It is a hectic programme but hopefully I think we’ve got the squad to cope with it.”
Manchester United are now four points clear at the top of the table, and Ferguson had a message for his rival manager Jose Mourinho. “There will be some difficult days ahead and you have to handle these days. You have to recover, as we did last week from the West Ham result. On Saturday and today we’ve shown we can bounce back, we’ve got character and we’ve got the desire to do it. Jose said last week that we’ll drop points before the end of the season. But also, he doesn’t realise, that he will drop points also, that is the nature of football, it happens. In the championship you just hope that you’re consistent enough and don’t drop too many that you can win the league.”