Van Der Sar: 'We have only ourselves to blame'

Edwin van der Sar admits Manchester United will have only themselves to blame if they come up short in this season’s title race.

United trail leaders Chelsea by a point going into the final day of the season, with Carlo Ancelotti’s side clear favourites needing only to beat Wigan at home to be champions.

Sir Alex Ferguson was left furious with Steven Gerrard’s sloppy back-pass, which gifted Chelsea a goal and set them on their way to a 2-0 victory over Liverpool on Sunday.

That all but sealed the title for Chelsea, but while Fergie was left to rue Liverpool’s failure to do his side a favour, Van der Sar was more honest in where it had gone wrong for United.

Fergie’s men have lost seven times in the Premier League this season, their worst record since the 2001-02 season, and Van der Sar said blaming Liverpool was a smokescreen.

“You hope, but you don’t really expect anything,” said the Dutchman. “Even if they [Liverpool] had tried really hard, I think they had a gruesome two weeks.

“They played a lot of games and they picked up a couple of injuries. So I don’t think that’s the cause of us maybe not winning the Premier League.

“That happened over the course of the year. Some breaks we didn’t get and Chelsea got, especially in the last couple of weeks.”

Van der Sar admitted he and his United team-mates did not expect any favours from Liverpool, with Fergie’s men aiming to outstrip them by claiming a record 19th title.

“I think we expected it,” added Van der Sar. “The gaffer had a couple of words before the game [against Sunderland] and the way we played and created the chances, we knew what to do.”

Van der Sar conceded United, who face Stoke at Old Trafford on Sunday, were not optimistic of Wigan denying Chelsea victory at Stamford Bridge to give them a glimmer of hope.

“You want to grab every little chance there is,” said Van der Sar. "You never know in football, of course, but it’s going to be hard, difficult and unlikely.

“But never mind, we have to make sure we work until the end. It would have been nice if we were a point ahead.

“We’re not in charge and it’s difficult, but we have to keep going and see what we can do this week on the training ground.

“We have to see if everybody has recovered from this match [against Sunderland] and hopefully have a nice game for our supporters on Sunday. We’re still hanging in there.”

Nani, Sunday’s match winner at the Stadium of Light, added: Nani said: “We are still a team, we are together and we will fight until the last chance.

“We still have a chance. You never know what is going to happen in football. Sometimes in life, it is very difficult, but we have to win our game and then hope.”