Sir Alex stays bullish despite defeats

Sir Alex Ferguson is confident Manchester United's five Premier League defeats will not prove terminal to their hopes of retaining their title.

After a decent start to life without Cristiano Ronaldo, the Red Devils have suddenly hit major trouble.

With up to eight senior defenders missing at times since mid-November, United have lost twice in three games, against Aston Villa and Fulham, and deserved nothing more on each occasion.

They have been hefty blows to take, particularly at a time when United tend to start hitting top gear.

The only saving grace is that no-one else is doing any better. Liverpool already seem to be out of contention, Arsenal are finding it difficult to string a sequence of results together away from the Emirates Stadium while favourites Chelsea, while establishing a four-point cushion at the top, needed a late Frank Lampard penalty to secure a home win against Portsmouth and another just to eke out a draw against West Ham last Sunday.

It is Villa and Tottenham who are capturing most attention, yet both have already dropped enough points to suggest they would struggle to maintain a level of form that would get them into contention to challenge for number one spot.

"It is an unusual league," said Ferguson. "Arsene Wenger said you could lose seven games and win the title this season. That is the way it is going.

"Someone also pointed out the recognised top four have lost 41 points this season. No-one would have bet on that.

"And there are more banana skins on the way I am sure.

"We just have to try and make sure we are not one of them."

It is not easy though given the injury list Ferguson has had to cope with. So desperate is their plight at present that he was even wistfully wondering whether Bill Foulkes, a legendary member of the 1968 European Cup-winning side and a Munich air crash survivor, might be worth calling up for Sunday's trip to Hull.

Under the circumstances, the Scot is probably extremely thankful United's Festive programme has been altered, meaning that instead of being in action on Boxing Day and then again on December 28, his own team's games will take place on the 27th and the 30th, when Wigan go to Old Trafford.

By then he hopes to have Nemanja Vidic and Wes Brown available after calf and hamstring problems, respectively.

United's medical staff are working feverishly to get one of them on the pitch at the KC Stadium, while teenage Brazilian brothers Rafael and Fabio Da Silva are being pushed ahead of schedule to make the trip across the M62.

"Hull will be encouraged by the fact we have these defenders injured," said Ferguson.

"They will certainly have a go at us."

After watching his team disintegrate at Craven Cottage - a defeat the chaos at Manchester City has helped deflect attention away from - Ferguson is reluctant to place his trust in Michael Carrick and Ritchie De Laet at the heart of his defence.

The United chief is not being particularly critical of either man's performance at Fulham, where they were joined in a back three by Darren Fletcher.

He just feels the attempts to patch up an area of the field vital for positive results were bound to show extreme weaknesses at some point.

"You can get away with playing midfielders in central defence once or twice but it proved difficult last Saturday," he said.

"We were doing okay until we lost the goal but we looked fragile from there on."

Ferguson defended his tactics, claiming once United reverted to a more conventional four-man backline, there were even more "holes" for Fulham to pour through.

In fact, he feels it was the Villa loss that was more damaging and, with Jonny Evans' calf problem leaving him third in the queue for potential comebacks ahead of an FA Cup tie with Leeds on January 3, he can only hope no further damage is inflicted over the coming days.

"It was a killer result for us because winning your home games can stabilise things," said Ferguson.

"It is unusual for us to lose two games in December. It has not happened many times here.

"What we have to do is get these two games out of the way because I am hopeful that by the time we play Leeds we should have three centre-backs fit.

"That would make a heck of a difference. Then we can kick on and get back to our normal selves."