Fergie Loves Beating The Scousers

Sitting on the perch from which he knocked off Liverpool (and Arsenal and Chelsea since that), Fergie declared his undying love of Liverpool games.

The great Scot continued the '80s habit of getting good results against Liverpool when he arrived at Old Trafford and though the 90s and the early 2000s weren't as impressive in terms of results against the Scousers, he can now boast a brilliant record against their current manager Rafa Benitez.

With a game against the dippers looming yet again he admitted his love of these clashes.

'I love the Liverpool games, I must admit,' he said on Friday.

'There`s nothing better for me and my players, particularly the older ones who've experienced it many times like Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes and Rio Ferdinand.

'I think the Liverpool game brings out a certain anticipation in our players and they'll be anticipating a difficult game. Liverpool are very strong defensively and people are talking about the Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres partnership.

'We know about Gerrard of course, he`s been on the scene for a long time and has also played in many of these derby games. Torres has scored twenty-four goals so far in his first season in the Premier League and I`m sure Rafa`s delighted with that return. We have to do our preparation tactically but if we play to our form, we`ll have a good chance.'

I think it's more than twenty-four (twenty-seven would be my guess but could not be bothered to look it up) but as Fergie is not a statistician it hardly matters. However, he's right we have a good chance - especially, as he put it, we know about Gerrard: we know that he usually does sweet FA against us. Long may that continue!