O'Neill confident of keeping young guns

Martin O'Neill is optimistic Aston Villa can "withstand" any offers this summer from the Barclays Premier League big guns for the club's group of talented young players.

Winger Ashley Young and striker Gabriel Agbonlahor capped off an outstanding season by being voted the PFA Young Player Of The Year and runner-up respectively.

O'Neill said: "Players are under contract. That is vitally important. With Gareth Barry, you do accept having spent 10-11 years at the club, he would be wanting to have a look at other particular things."
He added: "The rest of the boys have done well, but haven't in terms of over a long period of time for me to be overly concerned about that.

"I am quite sure I would be surprised if some people were not inquiring about our players - big teams - but I am hoping we will be able to withstand that.

"Are Villa no longer a selling club? At the moment we are pretty vibrant and that seems to be the buzz going around the Premier League.

"It will be up to us to try and maintain that. I just think there is a bit of something about the side here we would like to continue trying to improve."

O'Neill added: "I think without question that Villa a more attractive proposition than 12 months ago.

"I was down at the PFA awards with Ashley and Gabby. The vibes around the room were very positive. The kind of feeling around was that Villa have been really buzzing.

United are better by half

Ryan Giggs has called on Manchester United to repeat their first-half super show against Arsenal on Tuesday in order to complete their passage to the Champions League final.

Such was the brilliance of United's performance at Old Trafford last week, they are slightly unfortunate not to be counting down the days to Rome on May 27 already.

"If we play to the ability we did in the first half last week we will have no problems," said the former Wales skipper.
"We went out to get the crowd going and play at a quick tempo. That is what we do when we are at our best.

"Arsenal are a top team and they are capable of scoring goals so we are under no illusions about how difficult this is going to be.

"But our form in Europe has been excellent and we are in a good position."

Giggs is refusing to accept the Premier League title race is over even though the Old Trafford outfit only need seven more points from their remaining four games to be certain of holding off Liverpool's challenge.

However, the newly crowned PFA player of the year is now more interested in quelling Arsenal's threat.

"You have to look after Arsenal's quality players," said Giggs.

"They have so many matchwinners; Fabregas, Adebayor, Walcott, Van Persie, if he is fit. The threat is obvious, so you have to try and nullify it."

Moyes wants more

Everton boss David Moyes is demanding even bigger things from his players as they prepare for a thrilling finale to the season.

The Toffees eased their way into fifth place in the Barclays Premier League with a comfortable win at Sunderland, and have already qualified for the Europa League by virtue of their presence in the FA Cup final.

Moyes said: "We have got to go up again. We have got to be slicker, we need to be crisper than we were, and we need to be sharper."
He added: "But it's a time of the season when there is a lot of tiredness. We have all been at it probably since the start of July now, and we are into May and we are all flagging.

"It's tough for the players at this time, but the good teams - that's why I admire all the managers and the teams who keep doing it because they have got to be fresh and good for this time of the year.

"I am going to try to get out boys into tip-top condition for the weeks to come."

Despite having to do without Phil Jagielka, Tony Hibbert and Leon Osman on Wearside, Everton were simply too good for the Black Cats, who passed up an opportunity to ease their relegation fears with another insipid display.

The visitors enjoyed much the better of the first half, but had to wait until the 48th-minute to get their noses in front.

They did so when Jo turned Anton Ferdinand to feed Steven Pienaar, who stabbed the ball past Marton Fulop from close range.

Everton completed the victory 19 minutes from time when Pienaar took full advantage of some woeful marking to square for Marouane Fellaini, who calmly slipped the ball past the stranded Fulop.

Gerrard the Reds star attraction

Steven Gerrard made sure he had his picture taken with actor Daniel Craig after guiding Liverpool to a comprehensive 3-0 destruction of Newcastle at Anfield but it is the Geordies who need the help of James Bond to get themselves out of their relegation mess.

Liverpool, led by Gerrard in typical swashbuckling fashion, had destroyed Alan Shearer's side with a 3-0 scoreline that could easily have been doubled, with three more efforts hitting the woodwork.

Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez is waiting for the "two big mistakes I still believe United will make" in the title race.
He said: "Manchester United are a good team with good players, and they will need to make two big mistakes to let us in. But I still believe they can be caught and they will make mistakes.

"All we can do is to continue to win our matches and see how they handle pressure. We must win all our games to see how that affects them at the top."

The problems for temporary Newcastle boss Alan Shearer continue to mount. He was furious with Barton for his "stupid" tackle on Alonso.

The midfielder will be fined two weeks' wages and did his troubled time at St.James Park no good at all with his wild challenge in front of the Kop.

Shearer said: "He deserved to be sent off, he has let me, himself and the club down.

"He was not unlucky, the referee was spot-on. There was no need for him to do that in such a position."

And Shearer pulled no punches with his assessment of Newcastle's performance, saying: "We were lucky to keep it down to three, how many times did they hit the bar?"

Ferdinand boost for United

Manchester United have been given a major lift ahead of their Champions League semi-final with Arsenal as Rio Ferdinand returned to training.

It had been feared the England defender would miss Tuesday's second leg at the Emirates Stadium after suffering damage to his ribs and a bruised lung at Old Trafford last week.

But the presence of Ferdinand on the Carrington training ground this morning suggests he will face Arsene Wenger's men.
Such was the damage Ferdinand suffered in a collision with Edwin van der Sar that he was coughing up blood in the United dressing room last Wednesday.

He spent the night in hospital, although scans revealed the £29.1million England international had not suffered any extensive damage to his ribs.

Ferdinand was left out of Saturday's trip to Middlesbrough but given the importance of Tuesday's game, when United will attempt to defend a single goal lead, Sir Alex Ferguson wants the former West Ham skipper if at all possible.