September 27, 2008	Saturday	Ramazan 26, 1429

MANCHESTER, Sept 26: Sir Alex Ferguson has warned the Premier League pacesetters his Manchester United side is finally ready to kick-start the campaign.

United’s sluggish start has left Ferguson’s team lying seven points behind early leaders Arsenal. The disappointing opening draw with with Newcastle was followed by three road trips and United face Bolton at Old Trafford on Saturday still looking for their first home win.

And while last Sunday’s point at Chelsea was viewed as a moral victory, the previous week’s defeat at Liverpool had hit United hard. But Ferguson insists he drew comfort from the way his side played at Stamford Bridge where he believes Chelsea only forced their way back into the game because of a lack of match fitness on the part of key United players.

And he claims their are strong parallels between the current season and the same period last year when United recovered from a similar position to clinch a second successive title.

The United manager said: “We’ve had a tough start and had three away games in a row. But if you compare that to last season, we are on the same points tally. Early season isn’t decisive but I expect our form to pick up now, starting tomorrow against Bolton.

“The form of the team has started to come together and I think we expected that. And as I said a week ago, by October we will be back to normal I hope. Our first half against Chelsea was excellent. A few players showed they needed the game but it was very satisfactory.”

“Owen Hargreaves, Gary Neville, Park Ji-Sung, and Dimitar Berbatov all needed the game to build up their match fitness and I thought it showed. “But they will develop that as they play more games and will get better and better.”

Ferguson was left fuming by the performance of referee Mike Riley who booked seven United players in last week’s clash with Chelsea.

And he insisted it will be business as usual when his side face a Bolton side who came in for heavy criticism for their muscular approach against Arsenal last week.

He added: “I looked at the Chelsea game and there wasn’t a bad tackle in the match. But he (Riley)’s been rewarded, he’s got Everton v Liverpool tomorrow. That will be fun and games! But we don’t have any problem with discipline in the team. We always play good football and that will continue.”

Carlos Tevez is set to start against Wanderers after being named among the substitutes at Stamford Bridge. But Ferguson is adamant the Argentine striker understands why he was left out.

Ferguson added: “Tevez will be involved tomorrow, no doubt. When you have a squad of players you have a problem. If you are going to win something you need a string squad and that has paid us dividends.

“Players understand that when you tell them three or four days ahead but when it actually comes to the day of the game they all want to play. “I wouldn’t like to have anyone who didn’t want to play.”—AFP