Beckham backs 'devastating' Real

Fresh from Real Madrid's sixth straight League win, David Beckham yesterday suggested that the Spanish side could give Arsenal the kind of beating in the Champions' League he suffered in a Manchester United shirt at the Bernabeu three years ago.

Beckham, who also said he intends to hold on to the England captaincy beyond the departure of Sven Goran Eriksson as coach, was asked whether Real's run of 10 wins in their last 11 games meant that they were in the kind of form in which they beat Manchester United 3-1 in the first-leg of their quarter-final in 2003.

"I hope so," he said. "If every player performs to his potential then we can be devastating. If we do that against Arsenal then, hopefully, we'll win and give a great performance. Our form has been very good for a few months now. When this team plays well the Bernabeu is an incredible place for us to play in and not a very nice place for opposing teams to visit."

Real were three up inside 50 minutes in that meeting at the Bernabeu three years ago. After the game, Sir Alex Ferguson, the United manager, hailed Raul, who scored twice, as the best player in the world.

During Saturday's 3-0 victory over Alaves Raul was a second-half substitute, ending three months on the sidelines with a knee injury. Beckham added: "I'm really happy that he has come back because he is very important to the team."

Raul was in illustrious company on the bench on Saturday. Zinedine Zidane, Antonio Cassano and Brazilian full-backs Cicinho and Roberto Carlos were all rested as Real stayed seven points behind leaders Barcelona.

In contrast, such are Arsenal's injury problems that they could even name 16-year-old Theo Walcott on their bench. Yet Beckham was keen not to under-estimate the challenge they will pose Real. "Everyone is saying Arsenal are not in great form at the moment," he said. "But they've not turned into a bad team and bad players overnight."

Beckham has been at his best of late and asked if he felt he might soon be losing the England captaincy, he said: "I'm not going to give it up that easily."