Fergie hopes Ferdinand's England captaincy will boost United
Graham Chase
Sir Alex Ferguson believes Manchester United can benefit from Fabio
Capello's decision to make Rio Ferdinand the new England captain.
Ferdinand served the second game of his four-match suspension as
United returned to the top of the table with a 5-0 victory over
Portsmouth.
The defender, 31, was watching from the stands just 24 hours after
taking the England skipper's armband from John Terry, who was stripped
of the captaincy by Capello on Friday following allegations about his
private life.
Ferguson admits he is proud that a United player will captain England
at the World Cup in South Africa later this year and hopes the accolade
has a positive effect on Ferdinand's performances during the Premier
League title run-in.
He said: "We're pleased for him and it's great for Manchester United
to have one of our players captaining his country.
"Over the years we've had Gary, Bobby Charlton and Bryan Robson for
60-odd games or something so we're very proud of that."
Ferguson was happy with the patient display of his team against Avram
Grant's strugglers.
United took until the 40th minute to make the breakthrough but
Ferguson thinks that his team, who have dropped just two points against
bottom-half teams, were rewarded for their calm approach.
He added: "We had a lot of pressure and possession of the ball but we
were patient enough and that's important when teams come and sit in the
way they did here.
"Portsmouth were there to make it difficult but we got the goal just
before half time and it was a bit fortunate with the second one but that
opened the game for us in the second half and it was a good
performance."
Ferguson admits he is willing Arsenal to take points off Chelsea when
the two London teams meet at Stamford Bridge on Sunday.
The United manager added: "I don't know if I'll watch it or not
because I'm going up to Glasgow but I'll be thinking about it."
Grant insists that Portsmouth, who face a winding up order, will
continue to fight despite their position looking more and more
dangerous.
The club are working under their fourth set of owners of the season
and are seven points from safety at the bottom of the Premier League.
But the former Chelsea manager is hoping that the Fratton Park club
have turned a corner.
He said: "We need to do our job even if it feels like it is going
against us.
"I hope that the club will be more stable now. It was almost
impossible in the last matches with all the mess around the club and
uncertainty.
"I hope now it will be more stable and it's important for the club.
It's a unique club the whole city is behind the club.
"On the pitch we are doing very well and when you look back over the
years, the team at the bottom you see a lot of difference from them to
other teams but there's not a lot of difference between us and tenth
place.
"All we want is stability at the club because it will be very
difficult to continue like this.
"Positive thinking is always better than negative thinking and as
long as we have the chance we will fight."
United took the lead when Wayne Rooney scored his 23rd goal of the
season and Anthony Vanden Borre's own goal gave the champions a two-goal
half-time lead.
Just before the hour, Michael Carrick's shot looped in off the bar
off Richard Hughes and Dimitar Berbatov added a fourth with a fine solo
goal.
Portsmouth's embarrassment was complete when Marc Wilson volleyed
into his own net from Patrice Evra's cross.
MANCHESTER, Sunday, AFP |