By Simon Sinclair
31 Mar 2011 14:57:00
Premier League,Gary NevilleManchester United(Getty Images)
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Former Manchester United defender Gary Neville believes the main priority for his old team-mates should be to win the Premier League rather than the FA Cup and the Champions League.
Neville thinks the chasing pack which includes Arsenal and Chelsea have squandered opportunities to catch the Red Devils at the top of the table, when Alex Ferguson’s side suffered back-to-back defeats at the start of the month.
Neville told the clubs official website: “I would love to see us win the league as that’s our bread and butter but the cups are always a bonus and the Champions League is massive and, when the games come around, you always want to win them. But let’s just win that championship first.
“I think it probably is Chelsea and Arsenal who are the threats,” added Neville. “Arsenal had a couple of bad results when they could’ve put some pressure on us, particularly in the week we lost to Chelsea and Liverpool. But it is there for us and we’ve got so close. It is the run-in.”
The former England-man also identified the importance of keeping players fit and free from suspensions in the climax to the title race, as any slip up could cost the team the title.
He added: “I think it’s just simple things, there’s no complication. Keep the players fit, make sure they’re fresh and not over-trained, make sure they’re prepared. You really have got games now every weekend and midweek – it’s probably as big a month as I’ve seen in my 20 years here when you look at the matches coming up in the next four or five weeks and the scale of them.
“From that perspective, it’s just about making sure the preparations are the same and keeping the players fit and you don’t get sendings off. So discipline is important – they’re the ones out of your control a little bit as the manager needs his full squad at this time of the season.”
Neville believes Saturday’s game against West Ham could be a potential banana skin for United but thinks that Ferguson will have his team well prepared for the crucial encounter.
The-former Red Devil also stated that the players should not be thinking about the possibility of winning the treble as there’s still a long way to go in the season and they should not get ahead of themselves.
Neville said: “I think Saturday’s a big one to be honest with you, coming back from the internationals and playing away to West Ham with a lunchtime kick-off. That’s got a danger to it.
“That’s good in some ways though because the lads have been there before. It’s really, really important, they’ll know it’s a danger game. We’ve seen those times and how difficult those games are. I think we’ll be ready for it.”
“You never know with the Treble,” he explained. “If you get past the FA Cup final on the Saturday, you think it’s here now but you never think to win a Treble. It doesn’t enter your thinking as a player. With all the matches ahead of us, you haven’t got time to think about what might happen in six weeks’ time.
