Nani lands April award

Nani has broken Wayne Rooney’s stranglehold on the ManUtd.com Player of the Month award by picking up April’s gong.

The Portuguese winger polled an impressive 65 per cent of the vote – almost three times that of his nearest rival – to become the first player apart from Rooney to win the award in 2010.

Nobody can deny Nani deserves the April honour. He injected life into the Reds (and set up Federico Macheda’s goal) when he came on against Chelsea at the beginning of April before scoring two – one a strong contender for Goal of the Season – in United’s clash with Bayern Munich.

He also looked lively off the bench at Manchester City and was United’s star man when Tottenham came to town, capping the performance with a delicious chipped finish in the 81st minute. After the Spurs game, Ryan Giggs labelled Nani “a special talent” and said “to finish as coolly as he did shows his quality and temperament”.

ManUtd.com users also showed their appreciation for Paul Scholes’ performances in the poll, with the midfielder earning a quarter of the vote. Nemanja Vidic and Gary Neville shared the final 10 per cent.

 

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.”

 

Martinez: 'We'll give Chelsea a fight'

Wigan boss Roberto Martinez is promising to give Chelsea a title fight - despite taking a severely depleted team to Stamford Bridge.

Martinez’s Latics scrambled a late draw to send down Hull yesterday but they are vowing to complete the double over Carlo Ancelotti’s men.

Wigan will have to go into the crunch clash without star pair Chris Kirkland and Titus Bramble who are OUT of the showdown after undergoing operations.

But Martinez insisted: “We will not be going there to play for Manchester United, we are going to play for ourselves. We have got nothing to lose.

“I can guarantee there is a feeling in the squad that we can compete against anyone. That is the approach we are going to have - we have never gone into a game trying to draw, we always look for the win.

“It is a unique challenge for any player, especially for our young ones. The whole world of football will be watching.”

Keeper Kirkland faces surgery on a finger and his shoulder, problems that will also end any slight hope of a late England World Cup call-up for the shot-stopper.

Kirkland’s absence means that on-loan Serbian Vladimir Stojkovic will face the might of Chelsea as they look for the win to clinch the Premier League title.

Stojkovic is set to make his farewell appearance for Latics in that game, with his form during a loan spell not enough to make the move full-time. He was jeered by his own fans yesterday.

Centre-half Bramble is also sidelined after surgery on a stress fracture on his right ankle. The defender has played with the injury but needed to have the problem fixed.