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Sir Alex Ferguson has told his Manchester United players that he does not them to have to play in the qualifying rounds for next season's Champions League and is intent on snatching second place from Chelsea.
The defending champions have conceded the title to Arsenal but are now within three points of Claudio Ranieri's side, with a game in hand, and Ferguson is determined to ensure his team does not have to begin the 2004/05 season any earlier than is necessary.
With United already contracted to a three-game tour of the United States, two matches in the Vodafone Cup at Old Trafford, plus a likely Community Shield encounter with The Gunners in Cardiff on August 8th, the Champions League qualifying round represents two fixtures they would prefer to avoid.
In 2002 they travelled to Hungary to face Zalaegerszeg on a terrible pitch for a game that saw Wes Brown break an ankle, although their 1999 Champions League-winning campaign started with a two-legged encounter with Polish outfit LKS Lodz.
However, Gary Neville, whose first goal for three seasons gave United a 1-0 win over Leicester on Tuesday night, admitted: "The manager has made it perfectly clear to us that he doesn't want to end up having to qualify for the Champions League. We want to get into the competition automatically and that means finishing second.
"Apart from that, we don't want Arsenal to win the league by a huge number of points. They are too far in front of us to catch, but we still want to get as close to them as we can."
Neville admitted that the team's sudden improvement in form has come with a renewed defensive stability, the lack of which effectively ended their defence of the Barclaycard Premiership title earlier in the year.
Four wins and a draw from their last five matches is the kind of form Manchester United fans are more used to seeing from their side as they have conceded only two goals in that time and kept three clean sheets in the process, in contrast to the loss of 20 goals in 10 crucial games following Rio Ferdinand's suspension.
"Once again the two central defenders (Mikael Silvestre and Wes Brown) were excellent last night," said Neville. "They were the major reason why we kept another clean sheet.
"We are in the position of having the same people playing at the back every week now, which is something I'm sure the manager would have wanted all season. If we had been able to do that, we would be a lot closer to Arsenal than we are now.
"Unfortunately, Mikael got injured, as did Quinton Fortune. I got injured and then got suspended and Rio got his ban too. There was a two-month period where we could never keep the same back four, so it's no wonder we struggled.
"Now we have the continuity that has been there in previous seasons and we are looking good again."
United's lunchtime kick-off at Portsmouth on Saturday gives them the chance to leapfrog Chelsea into second spot and they are likely to be boosted by the return of skipper Roy Keane and top scorer Ruud van Nistelrooy, who both missed the win over Leicester through injury.
In the meantime, Keane has announced that he is return to the international fold with the Republic of Ireland – a decision that Sir Alex supports.
"I am pleased for Roy because it was important for him and his family to put to bed something that has been simmering away for a long time," said Ferguson.
"There has been dialogue between Roy and Brian Kerr for a little while which I was party to. Roy then spoke to me and I am happy with his decision.
"It may be the thing that will drive him on for the next two years. I think he will only play the five competitive games each season and Ireland will obviously get the benefit of that."
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