EPL: Not the time to panic, says Ferguson after Newcastle rout

United manager insists team can bounce back.

NEWCASTLE: Sir Alex Ferguson insisted it is ‘not time to panic’ despite admitting Manchester United had handed the Premier League title initiative back to Manchester City.

A stunned Ferguson saw his side suffer a comprehensive 3-0 defeat at Newcastle, condemning them to back-to-back league losses for the first time in 10 months to remain in second, three points adrift of Roberto Mancini’s leaders, while holding the same advantage over Tottenham Hotspur, in third.

The Manchester rivals meet in the FA Cup this weekend, but Ferguson’s thoughts remain on his attempts to stretch City’s 44-year wait for the English top flight crown.

“Of course it is advantage City,” he said. “We had our opportunity, they played and won, so it’s advantage to them. The one plus for me is we had two or three players back, and maybe that can make the difference. It’s not time to panic, we have the patience and experience to cope.”

Ferguson insists his defending champions’ title know-how will help them in the long-run this season.

“Losing a game down the years, you don’t want it to happen, but it does, and you see that with some of the results lately. But we’ll take the show on the road, particularly in March and April.”

Phil Jones’ embarrassing injury-time own goal completed United’s misery, after stunning goals in each half from Demba Ba and Yohan Cabaye set Newcastle on the way to a first home win in two months to cement their hold on seventh place. Wayne Rooney failed to shine on his return after a one-game suspension and hefty fine for flouting a club curfew over Christmas, as United were shut out for the first time this season.

Ferguson said the team started well but praised Newcastle for an outstanding show.

“We started reasonably well, and we had a good chance when Wayne was through and the ball ran under his foot. But then Newcastle scored a fantastic goal, and it really picked everyone up in the stadium.

“They got really aggressive against us and made it difficult. It was a marvellous volley and then the second goal was a killer. We didn’t make enough of our possession.”

Pardew ecstatic after win

Newcastle will lose 15-goal top scorer Ba and the equally influential midfielder Cheik Tiote to African Cup of Nations duty next month.

“I’m not going to hide the fact that Demba and Cheik were our two outstanding players, and we’re going to miss them while they’re away,” said manager Alan Pardew.

“But we look forward to welcoming them back. It’s a great result, we stayed on top of United, and didn’t let them play. We were due a win at home against one of the big Premier League sides, but now we’ve done that, we mustn’t get carried away.”

Meanwhile, in another Premier League encounter Gary Cahill’s winner earned Bolton a 2-1 win away to Everton.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 6^th, 2012.