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After the rug was pulled from under Rio Ferdinand's season on Friday evening, few would have been surprised to see him left out of Manchester United's game at White Hart Lane yesterday. However, Sir Alex Ferguson decided that his £30m man was able to cope with the pressure and emotional stress, and he was not let down.
"We didn't know how he would cope with the situation, but possibly the best thing for him was to play and get everything out of his mind and enjoy himself a little bit," declared Ferguson. "Rio acquitted himself very well. He wanted to play and it probably provided an escape so he could forget all the things that are happening in his life.
"Strangely enough, since this happened, he has become better and better. I saw him in training and he said that he felt okay, so that's why I went with him. His performances keep him in the team. Together with Mikael Silvestre and Tim Howard, they have formed a great backbone of the team.
"Their form has been so good, none of them deserve to be left out so hopefully we can keep them together for as long as we can. Historically, we have always shown our determination in the second half of the season and hopefully we can prove those statistics right again," he insisted.
"It is not going to be easy but I think the players are ready for it. The important thing is to be there at the turn of the year. Ruud [van Nistelrooy] is in great form at the moment. All we have to do is make sure he gets chances because we know that he will get his ratio of goals."
However, yesterday's win over Spurs was not quite as straightforward as Ferguson would have hoped when his team were leading 2-0 at half-time. As with their victory in the Manchester derby, United led the opposition back into the game and had to fight to keep their lead.
"We always seem to make it difficult for ourselves. We got careless after an hour, which is just typical of us at the moment," admitted the United boss. "From a position of total control, we have made it difficult for ourselves again. But we battled away, the defenders stuck to their task and we showed great determination to get the ball out of the box."
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