CHAMPIONS League points are Manchester United's immediate aim. They need to take at least four from Wednesday's home match against Rapid Vienna and the encounter with Fenerbahce in Turkey three weeks later if the European Cup is not to become a distant dream by the time Juventus visit Old Trafford in November.
Nothing, however, is more likely to disturb Alex Ferguson's present priorities than the prospect of Liverpool mounting an early charge at the top of the Premiership. While Chelsea's sweeper system was being brushed aside at Anfield on Saturday, United were struggling in vain to break down Aston Villa's version of the three-man defence.
Manchester United's first goalless game since Villa forced a 0-0 draw at Old Trafford in mid-January has left them four points off the lead. With more than four-fifths of the Premiership programme still to come this is hardly the stuff of crisis but the next four weeks will test Ferguson's ability to balance his European aspirations against domestic needs.
The match against Rapid Vienna will be followed by a home game against Tottenham next Sunday. After a break for the World Cup qualifiers, United will pick up the thread against Liverpool at Old Trafford on the morning of October 12th. Four days later they are in Istanbul, and four days after that they will visit Newcastle United.
Life at the top is seldom dull and Ferguson is going to need all the multi-national talent at his disposal. But as Saturday's game at Villa Park showed, there are days when United's goalscoring options become extremely limited if Eric Cantona is too busy supervising to find the net.
Take away Cantona's 14 Premiership goals last season and Manchester United would not have regained the championship. Andy Cole is United's most expensive penalty area predator but he has conspicuously failed to retain the scoring habit which persuaded Ferguson to part with £6 million and the £1 million-rated Keith Gillespie to bring the player from Newcastle to Old Trafford early in 1995. Paul Scholes is still a backbencher.
Cole, who missed the start of the season with pneumonia, appeared for the second half on Saturday, replacing the bright young Norwegian striker Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. The substitution had been pre-arranged because Ferguson wanted to give Cole first-team action but the contrast between Solskjaer's awareness and his replacement's relatively blinkered vision was hard to ignore.
Nevertheless, Cole might have won the match for Manchester United 19 minutes from the end when he rose well to meet Giggs's centre from the left and saw a firm header beat Oakes only to rebound from the crossbar. Five minutes earlier, the Aston Villa goalkeeper had diverted a narrow-angled shot from Giggs on to the outside of the near post.
As a warm-up for Rapid Vienna, United could be reasonably satisfied with a performance which saw an unusually vapid Villa out-passed for half the match and then unable to create chances after they had established some sort of parity in midfield. Savo Milosevic is a clever footballer but the threat the Serb posed to United's defence was minimal compared with the way a Croatian, Alen Boksic, had bamboozled them in Turin 10 days earlier.
If Saturday proved anything it was the extent to which Manchester United missed Roy Keane against Juventus. Returning after a knee operation, the Irishman dominated the midfield for the best part of an hour and Villa only really got going when Andy Townsend found his second wind.
Keane's form, fitness and his ability to avoid suspension are going to be as crucial to the progress of Manchester United this season as the well-being of Cantona. On the disciplinary side, a booking for some second-half verbals was not the happiest of auguries.
Gary Pallister, who twisted a knee at Villa Park, should be fit for Wednesday night and Peter Schmeichel, absent with a stomach upset, is due to return. The only time his large Dutch replacement, Van der Gouw, was beaten, by Yorke in the 79th minute the goal was disallowed. "No complaints, I think it was offside and handball," said Brian Little the Aston Villa manager.
Little's hopes of keeping Villa in the UEFA Cup against Helsingborg in Sweden tomorrow night will depend initially on Southgate and Ehiogu maintaining their present excellence at the back. But having been held to 1-1 at Villa Park in the first leg, a second goalless draw in four days would put them out.
