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London. Boosted by an impressive 4-0 Champions League triumph over AC Milan, Manchester United now has to concentrate on staying on top of the English Premier League.

After Wayne Rooney took his goal tally for the season to 30 with two more against the Italian club, United has a home game against a Fulham side that has won only one league game in 14 away from home and should be confident of staying two points ahead of Chelsea and Arsenal in the title race.

The down side for manager Alex Ferguson and his team is that both rivals have comparatively easy games too. Chelsea hosts West Ham, today, and Arsenal visits next-to-last Hull.

The biggest danger to United could be the fitness of Rooney, who has been hampered by a nagging knee injury.

“His performance was a continuation of his form in the last few months, just sensational and unbelievable,” Ferguson said. “He’s still carrying a bit of an injury, nothing serious.”

Longtime leader Chelsea slipped to second only because it was involved in FA Cup action last weekend. But striker Didier Drogba is cautious about predicting another triumph.

“We are far from that,” he said. “We have a lot of games coming, and big games, too, so I don’t want to bring bad luck by talking about if we win.”

Like United, Arsenal comes off a big victory in Europe, a 5-0 crushing of FC Porto, as it also captured a spot in the quarter­final of the Champions League.

Although too far behind to be realistically in the title race, the four teams behind have their own battle to capture fourth spot, which means a shot at next season’s Champions League.

Tottenham holds fourth place going into a home game against Blackburn on Saturday but is level on points with Manchester City, which visits Sunderland on Sunday and has a game in hand.

Liverpool squandered a chance of going fourth when it tamely lost 1-0 at Wigan on Monday and is a point behind, having played a game more. Rafa Benitez’ team doesn’t play its next league game until Monday, however, when it hosts last-place Portsmouth. Lurking behind Liverpool is Aston Villa, which goes to Stoke, which has proved tough to beat at home.

Down at the foot of the standings, Portsmouth looks all but doomed, especially if it has nine points deducted for going into financial administration.

Portsmouth already has five points to make up on three teams that are level on 24 points, and two of them, Burnley and Wolves, meet on Saturday. The other, Hull, should struggle to get a point out of Arsenal, even at home.

Bolton and Wigan also face each other, while Saturday’s other game is Birmingham at home to Everton.



Associated Press