Giggs confident in United's abilities

Victories for Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool at the weekend have put Manchester United in unfamiliar territory five points off the Premier League summit and in the relatively murky depths of fourth place. With the loss to Bolton Wanderers last Saturday fresh in the mind, United's rivals could be forgiven for thinking there may be some doubt creeping into Old Trafford ahead of tonight's home game against Fulham.

Not a bit of it according to Ryan Giggs. "Outside the club, a lot is made of it when we lose a game," the United winger said. "But inside there are no alarm bells. You have to be realistic everyone is going to lose occasionally. One game is nothing. It is when you lose two or three on the bounce that you should start worrying."

Although it is not unheard of for Fulham to win at Old Trafford they last managed it in 2003 United have won their last five meetings and are strong favourites to extend that sequence to six.

With no internationals to disrupt the fixture list until February and top spot in their Champions League group confirmed already, United have a two-month run to concentrate on domestic matters. It is a time of the year when United have traditionally been at their strongest. "This is a time of year when we have won a lot of games in the past," Giggs said. "The last international break was not too good for us because we were brilliant against Blackburn before it and definitely were not against Bolton afterwards. If we are in good form, we want the games to come thick and fast.

"We hope we can get our form going into the Christmas period again, because there are four or five games within 10 or 11 days with a lot of points to be won."

Giggs is among a clutch of players expecting a recall after starting last Tuesday's win over Sporting Lisbon on the bench. Carlos Tevez, Wes Brown and Owen Hargreaves are in the same situation while Wayne Rooney has stepped up his training in recent days after recovering from an ankle injury.