Evra eager to shut out Tevez

Patrice Evra has vowed to stop old friend Carlos Tevez twisting the knife into Manchester United.

After leaving Old Trafford in such acrimonious circumstances last summer, Tevez has hit a rich vein of form for Manchester City.

Eight goals in December earned him the Premier League player-of-the-month prize before he started 2010 with a bang by slamming home a hat-trick against Blackburn a week ago.

The 25-year-old knows more goals could help fire City to their first domestic cup final since 1981, and he has warned Evra he now has United in his sights.

But Evra, who was part of an unlikely trio that included Tevez and Park Ji-sung during the Argentina star's time at Old Trafford, has responded to all his texts. And the answer is always the same.

"When I congratulated Carlito on his hat-trick against Blackburn he replied that was just the warm-up for United and this was going to be two finals for him. But I told him no chance," said Evra.

"I remember when we played them in the league I managed to get a touch onto one of his shots at the last second and the ball hit the post rather than going into the net.

"I have to do the same again because I don't want him to score against us."

That 4-3 extravaganza exposed Tevez to the full brunt of United fans' ire.

Sir Alex Ferguson has always maintained a deal was struck to take the South American to Eastlands long before the end of last season.

His choice of club certainly did not go down well, although Evra insists Tevez leapt the great divide with a heavy heart.

"It is still painful when I see him wearing a Manchester City shirt," said the France full-back.

"It was not easy for him to move because Carlos was a Manchester United fan in his heart.

"But he is still a champion guy and now he is starting to play well, scoring a lot of goals.

"I am not surprised how well he is doing because he has a great mentality and a great spirit.

"He showed he was a good player when he was at Manchester United and now he is doing the same at City."

Ferguson has pledged to infuse his team with an element of youth, so the Da Silva twins Fabio and Rafael could both be involved, along with Republic of Ireland international Darron Gibson.

Dimitar Berbatov has not been ruled out either following Ferguson's revelation that the Bulgarian did not suffer a recurrence of his knee injury in the win over Burnley on Saturday.