Rio Ferdinand has won three Premiership titles with United and is aiming for his fourth this season. When talking about the teams that might deny him another title, he claimed fifth placed Arsenal’s chances were fairly slim.

“It is not beyond Arsenal but it is my personal opinion that it will be between the other three this season,” said Rio. “At the moment it looks like being nip and tuck but usually from Christmas onwards the teams who are going to be there at the end start pulling away. I can see that happening this season. I presume ourselves, Chelsea and Liverpool will pull away, then it will be down to two and finally one.”

Within a matter of hours, the Arsenal camp had responded, with them claiming they definitely were still in the title race. (Oh how we laughed)

Cesc Fabregas

“With all the experience they [Manchester United] have, they should know more than anyone that football can change in one week, two weeks. It is a massive game against Liverpool, it is vital. It can be a massive change in the table. If we win we know that we can come back to five points which is not a lot. We know five points is nothing.”

Emanuel Adebayor

“It is better if Rio say ‘we will try to do everything to win it’. We know we are eight points behind and we have a chance to play them and close the gap. We have to keep focused. It is going to be an important game and I don’t have to say too much about it. The motivation will come from within ourselves. We need to show good character and a good personality to win the game.”