Alex Ferguson predicts a long, hard Premier League title race with champion Manchester City after his Manchester United team opened up a seven-point gap over rival Chelsea.

Table-topper United ground out a 1-0 victory over West Ham at Old Trafford thanks to Robin van Persie scoring the fastest goal of the Premier League season to date, after only 33 seconds.

It was the third clean sheet United has kept in domestic soccer this season and ended a worrying trend of the team having conceded first in nine of their opening 13 league games.

And while it was far from a vintage performance, it was a vital one given that City's victory at Wigan kept the defending champion just one point behind.

"The three points means we're still ahead in the league and, with Chelsea drawing, it draws us away from them a little bit further," said veteran United manager Ferguson. "But City are on our tails. It's going to be a long season.

"The importance of winning 1-0 in certain games is your opponents know the resilience is there.

"If you look at some of the really important one-nils we've had, go back to beating Newcastle when they were nine points clear of us (in 1996).

"Our 1-0 that night won us the league. There are important 1-0 victories. We've had many of them."

AFP

(China Daily 11/30/2012 page24)