Ryan Giggs believes Manchester United have fired a warning to their floundering Premier League title rivals by coming from behind to beat West Ham.
With the league leaders also preparing to welcome back several key players from injury, Giggs says Arsenal and Chelsea, United’s most realistic challengers, will have taken note of the spirit shown by Sir Alex Ferguson’s side as they scored four times in 19 minutes to turn the game on its head at Upton Park.
The veteran winger helped the visitors recover from a 2-0 deficit to win 4-2 on a day when Arsenal and Chelsea both dropped points, stretching their advantage over the two London clubs to seven points, albeit having played a game more.
But the psychological impact of the result and the manner of its achievement was not lost on Giggs, who is hoping to seal a twelfth Premier League title this season. Asked if the win was a message for the chasing pack, he said: “It is, yeah. We’ve done it so many times and we’ve ground out results [but] not played so well.
“I felt we played really well, even in the first half. The bench looked strong. We’ve got players coming back; we’ve got Anderson, Nani’s on the bench and has been brilliant this season, Berba [Dimitar Berbatov], Chicho [Javi Hernandez], Michael Owen. And they were the difference. Chicho and Berbatov made a difference when they came on.
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“It’s always a fight when you come down to Upton Park because they’re always up for it and they’re in good form as well. So we knew we had to play well, we knew we had to be at our best, and I felt we were.
“Everybody ups their game against you. It always is [that way] in the run-in. Teams are either fighting relegation, or going for Europe, or going for Champions League. There’s always something at stake, so every game is a cup final now - seven games to go.”
Giggs also hailed the “brilliant” performance of Wayne Rooney and believed the England striker had underlined his ability to win games single-handedly - a perfect reminder ahead of Manchester United’s trip to Chelsea for Wednesday’s Champions League quarter-final at Stamford Bridge.
“You want all your players to be in good form, because it’s such a tough place to go, Stamford Bridge, and Chelsea are playing well as well. You want to go into that game in good form, both personally and as a team.”
Despite finding themselves two goals down to West Ham at half-time on Saturday, Giggs revealed Ferguson did not deliver the “hairdryer” treatment that might have been expected, instead revealing the “calm” nature of the manager’s team talk.
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“The manager is obviously the one who believed in us and felt that we were playing some good stuff first half,” Giggs said. “We were just a little bit careless in the last third, probably. [Ferguson] just said, ‘Concentrate a little bit more in the last third and we’ll score goals’.
“To go down with two penalties is always disappointing but we felt that Antonio [Valencia] was getting crosses in, we were causing them plenty of problems with the movement. It was just a matter of concentration once you’re in the last third.”