Football: LAST CHANCE TO RESCUE OUR SEASON OF AGONY

TO SAY this season has been a nightmare would be an understatement. Failure in the Champions League against Bayer Leverkusen last week was the low point in my 10-year career at Old Trafford.

Now our only hope of avoiding a complete disaster is to beat Arsenal on Wednesday and hope Everton can do us a favour at Highbury on Saturday.

United have got the strongest squad I have ever known but we have let ourselves, the manager and the supporters down. And that is unforgivable.

There are no excuses for any of us. Any pain we are feeling right now is probably self-pity - and we haven't even earned the right to that!

I don't think the shock of failing to reach what would have been a classic Champions League Final against Real Madrid has sunk in yet.

The despair on the faces of my team-mates last Tuesday night is still fresh in my mind and I guess hanging my head in shame will be no conciliation to the Manchester United fans who have not only come to expect success but to demand it.

The fact is that we have no divine right to win anything. You have to earn success and on that basis we deserve to finish the season empty-handed.

I can't begin to explain why it's gone wrong for us this campaign, particularly in Europe.

In the two previous seasons we have lost to the eventual winners, Bayern Munich and Real Madrid. That somehow seems acceptable to a point, but what happened last Tuesday isn't.

We had gone into the semi- final clashes with the Germans in great form but we never performed in either leg and got what we deserved - nothing.

I take a great deal of responsibility for that because, like the majority of United players, I didn't play well. In hindsight it's easy to say we were merely a kick away from the final with a couple of good chances being cleared off the line, but the result tells the real story.

The Premiership has been a different issue because we have paid the price for poor form and individual mistakes earlier in the season - and more importantly five home defeats, which is unheard of.

I've been asked if our shattering exit from the Champions League will motivate us for Wednesday night's Premiership show-down at Old Trafford.

Listen, if we need motivating for any game none of us should pull on a United shirt again.

The outlook looks bleak and realistically Arsenal are in the driving seat. Even if we beat them they would have to throw the title away at home against Everton in their last game of the season.

Does it hurt that it's Arsenal who look like taking our crown? Frankly I couldn't care less. It could be Bolton or Derby for all I care - the pain of failing to retain the title remains the same.

But if Arsenal think they can rub our noses in it by claiming the title in our backyard, then they had better think again.

While we still have an outside chance of nicking it we will be doing our utmost, no matter how great the odds are stacked against us, to win that fourth successive title.

There is always hope. But it's a sad state of affairs when we have to rely on another team to bail us out when our own destiny is firmly out of our hands.

But if - as we expect to - we beat Arsenal, it will come down to how they handle their own nerves.

I remember our treble-winning season when we needed to beat Tottenham at home to win the title and the nerves got to us with the race being so closely contested.

We went 1-0 down and although we fought back to win the match 2- 1, it was certainly more down to good fortune that it was to the performance.

To be honest the end of the season can't come quick enough for me, although I dare say that two or three weeks into the summer I will be desperate to get back on the training pitch in preparation for next season.

A mark of any good side is its ability to bounce back immediately and history suggests that on the rare occasion we have ended up with nothing, we have triumphed the following season.

Of course you have to hope you remain part of it. I'm not suggesting the manager is going to totally rebuild the side but in any season when failure has been prominent, the boss will always ask himself why it went wrong and what he can do to ensure it doesn't happen again.

Invariably that means he will focus on the squad and the first- team players - and make no mistake, if he feels he can bring in someone who can do a better job and he has the financial clout to do so, he will venture into the transfer market.

The manager owes no debt to individuals, his responsibility is to ensure success just as we have a responsibility to justify pulling on the famous red shirt. I wonder how many of us, hand on heart, can say we did that this season?

LAST TEN LEAGUE MEETINGS Nov 25, 01, Arsenal 3 Man Utd 1

Feb 25, 01 Man Utd 6 Arsenal 1

Oct 1, 00, Arsenal 1 Man Utd 0

Jan 24, 00, Man Utd 1 Arsenal 1

Aug 22, 99, Arsenal 1 Man Utd 2

Feb 17, 99 Man Utd 1 Arsenal 1

Sep 20, 98 Arsenal 3 Man Utd 0

Mar 14, 98 Man Utd 0 Arsenal 1

Nov 9, 97 Arsenal 3 Man Utd 2

Feb 19, 97 Arsenal 1 Man Utd 2

FACT: Arsenal have won just twice (1990-91 and 1997-98) in their last 12 visits to Old Trafford in all competitions and in both years they won the title.

HOW THEY BET11-10..............MANCHESTER UTD 9- 5...................................ARSENAL 12- 5......................................DRAW FIRSTTOSCORE 4- 1.........Ruud VAN NISTELROOY 6-1..........................Thierry HENRY 6-1..........Ole Gunnar SOLSKJAER 15/2..............Freddie LJUNGBERG 7-1.........................Diego FORLAN 8- 1...................Dennis BERGKAMP 9- 1...........................Paul SCHOLES 9- 1......................Nwankwo KANU 11- 1............................Ryan GIGGS 10- 1....................Sylvain WILTORD 16-1..........Juan Sebastien VERON 25-1.........................................EDU 20- 1............................Roy KEANE 28- 1........................Ray PARLOUR 28- 1..............................Nicky BUTT 28- 1.........................Patrick VIEIRA 33- 1........................Lauren BLANC 40- 1........................Sol CAMPBELL 40-1...................Mikael SILVESTRE 40-1..........................Tony ADAMS 40- 1..................Ronnie JOHNSEN 40-1......................Robert LAUREN 40-1............................Phil NEVILLE 50- 1...........................Ashley COLE 66- 1.........................Wes BROWN 66-1.....................Martin KEOWN 8-1..................NO GOALSCORER

Copyright 2002 MGN LTD
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.