‘Sir Alex Ferguson has proved since the inception of the Premiership that he is the master of judging the pace of a title race.
With six matches remaining he has coaxed his Manchester United thoroughbreds into a menacing position on the rails behind the one-time runaway leaders, Chelsea.
Nothing frightens United at the moment, not even
Saturday's trip to Bolton was seen by many as a likely stumbling block but United came away from the Reebok - which had not been breached since August - richly deserving an eighth successive victory, which has reduced their arrears to "only" seven points.
There is no better example of
The United manager has used his Dutch master sparingly since a below-par performance in the FA Cup defeat at
After Ferguson's selection of Louis Saha was vindicated by the Frenchman producing a superb left-footed finish to equalise Kevin Davies's 26th-minute opener for Bolton, Van Nistelrooy then endorsed the manager's strategy by coming off the substitutes' bench to snatch a priceless winner at the end of a sustained period of second-half pressure which could have brought them four more goals.
Ferguson, who claimed that Van Nistelrooy was in favour of another rest after his exertions in breaking down a resolute West Ham, pointed out that "anything can happen" during nerve-racking title run-ins but he admitted that a gap which has been reduced from 17 points to seven in the last month is still a large one.'