Valencia: Manchester United still worried about late title slip-up

Manchester United winger Antonio Valencia has revealed that the team is still "worried" that they could let Manchester City back into the title race this campaign.
Roberto Mancini's side reduced the gap at the top of the table with seven games to go back to 12 points after emerging victorious from their recent derby clash at Old Trafford 2-1 on Monday, courtesy of goals from James Milner and Sergio Aguero.

Valencia feels that even though they remain the
Favourites, they are now starting to look nervously over their shoulder, confessing the club need to take maximum points from their next two matches against Stoke and West Ham to put any doubts to bed.
"We're a little worried. It has already happened to us," Valencia told Ecuadorian radio station Sonorama .
"Last year, having eight points with seven games to go we lost the league, and now we have seven games, 12 points and we don't want this to happen again.
"We want to finish off the two games that are coming as soon as possible, starting off in the right way and ending up victorious."
The winger admitted he was upset only to feature for 10 minutes as a late substitute during the defeat to City and that he is growing frustrated with his lack of playing opportunities recently.
He added: "They are the manager's decisions [to make], but I was still a bit upset.
"In such an important game, to be not taken into account as a starter is upsetting.
"Ten minutes is very short for such a tight, difficult game. The important thing is to come on and play, but yeah, you become restless waiting for the next game and wanting to play 90 minutes."

Stam: Rvp is still world class

Former Manchester United defender Jaap Stam believes Robin van Persie is still a "world-class player" regardless his recent form in front of goal.
The striker has been in poor form in recent weeks and, after his strike against Sunderland was deemed to have been a Titus Bramble own-goal instead, his goalless run now stretches to 10 league games.

Stam feels Van Persie has already proven his quality and that there is more to come from him this season.
"Since day one, when he joined, he has done very well," Stam told the club's official website.
"Although I've heard people talking about him not scoring for a while, I think he's scored a lot before that and, when he gets chances again, he will score goals for United in the future.
"He's done exceptionally well and is a world-class player who has proved himself in England really well since he left Holland. So everyone has got a lot of respect for him for what he's done in his career. "Robin has been very important for the club. It's hard for strikers to score in every game and to finish off every chance that they get.
"It's not like that in football. The opponents always know the quality of the strikers so, if van Persie is scoring, a lot of other teams will be marking him with two defenders and making it hard for him to score.
"But it doesn't matter as he's then taking a lot of attention away from the defenders and, if someone else scores, as they have been doing, then it's okay."

Rooney wins March goal award

Wayne Rooney has picked up our latest Goal of the Month award for his effort against Norwich City at the start of March.
In injury-time against the Canaries at Old Trafford, Rooney cut inside and unleashed a dipping drive from outside the box past goalkeeper Mark Bunn to seal a 4-0 win for United, after Shinji Kagawa's earlier maiden hat-trick for the club.
The goal gathered 39% of fans' votes on our seven official websites – English and its Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Arabic, Spanish and French language versions.
Javier Hernandez's looping header in the 2-2 FA Cup draw against Chelsea came second on 27%, with Kagawa's third goal against Norwich, a neat dink following a fine team move, rounding off the top three (16%).
Kagawa's second that afternoon, an impudent first-time finishfrom Rooney's pass, was also nominated, along with a rocket by Charni Ekangamene and a smart shot by Sam Byrne for the Under-21s and Under-18s respectively