21/09/2007 08:40, Report by Ben Hibbs, at Carrington
Sunday too soon for Reds duo
Thigh injuries have ruled Owen Hargreaves and Gary Neville out of Sunday's clash with Chelsea at Old Trafford.
The pair have both trained this week, but Sir Alex Ferguson expectsthem to return either side of next Wednesday's Carling Cup tie withCoventry City.
"Owen Hargreaves is in training and improving all the time, he's incontention for Coventry," Sir Alex told his pre-match press conference.
"Gary Neville has joined first team training, but the Coventry game istoo early. We'll be looking at 7-10 days. For Sunday's game we'll berelying mainly on Wednesday's squad."
No new injuries were collected in United's win over Sporting Lisbon,giving Sir Alex a bulging squad for the visit of the Blues, who facetheir first game since the departure of manager Jose Mourinho.
Ryan Giggs believes the result of Sunday's United-Chelsea clash at OldTrafford will have little bearing on the eventual outcome on thisseason's title race.
The Blues will pitch up at Old Trafford with a new manager following the shock departure of Jose Mourinho on Thursday.
Avram Grant, formerly the club's director of football, will take chargeof his first match as Blues boss on Sunday, with Steve Clarkeassisting.
Giggs is expecting a tough encounter and says United are determined tocome out of the game with a positive result. But the stand-in skipperinsists the match is by no means a title decider.
"Whether we win or lose the game, I don't think it'll have too muchbearing on where the championship goes," he told this month's InsideUnited Magazine. "It's all about being consistent across the entireseason.
"Chelsea are a solid team with good experience. They have greatdiscipline so it's hard to create chances against them, but we've donealright in the last few years.
"They're normally tight affairs so you like to try and score the firstgoal. But it's all about having consistency against all the teams youhave to play against. Hopefully we can get the result we want."
