SOCCER:ALEX FERGUSON has challenged his Manchester United side to produce a grandstand finish to the Premier League season and demonstrate that the criticisms about their performances have "not been well-founded" by beating Arsenal and Chelsea.

United have the opportunity to deliver a telling blow in the title race when they travel to Arsenal tomorrow to face a side that have won one of their past nine matches in all competitions.

After what should be the formality of the second leg of the Champions League semi-final against Schalke on Wednesday, the league leaders then play second-placed Chelsea the following Sunday at Old Trafford, where they have dropped two points all season.

If everything goes according to plan, that would be the game when United overtake Liverpool with a record 19th league title. Arsenal’s dismal run has seen them fall nine points behind and anything but a home win tomorrow will confirm what already looks a certainty – a sixth successive season without silverware for Arsene Wenger.

“We want to win these games,” Ferguson said. “People have been inferring for some time that this is Arsenal’s chance to beat us on their ground and come back to win the league, and that it is Chelsea’s chance to beat us at Old Trafford and win the league.

“Well, I take a different view and my view is why can we not win these games? The form we are in, we have a chance of doing that. They are not easy games but they are not going to be easy games for Arsenal or Chelsea either.”

Ferguson believes his players are “coming to their peak” despite some prolonged criticism about the level of their performances, particularly away from home. Didier Deschamps, the Marseille manager, summed up the popular view when the sides met in the Champions League quarter-finals, describing the current United side as not having the same “stardust” of previous teams.

Ferguson, however, cited the way they had outclassed Schalke in Gelsenkirchen on Tuesday, when the two-goal margin of victory barely told the story of their dominance.

“An individual can make a difference, as (Cristiano) Ronaldo did many times, but (Wayne) Rooney and Chicarito (Javier Hernandez) are making the difference now and (Antonio) Valencia’s form is making a difference.

“If you look at the work-rate of our team collectively on Tuesday, that is what we aim for. The collective unit was first class and, if we do achieve anything, it will be the collective that does it. It is the teams who win the major competitions.”

With five wins on the road, his side are on the verge of becoming the first to win the league with fewer than eight away victories since Liverpool in 1976-77.

“We have had enough criticism about our away form,” Ferguson said. “Some of it has been justified. I haven’t been happy with some of the away form but our form at Old Trafford has been magnificent, first class. We have had some great performances and scored the most goals in the league and overall the criticism has not been well-founded.”

Ferguson was in Spain on Wednesday to watch the encounter between Real Madrid and Barcelona. The game and its surrounding controversies disappointed him “because there is so much in the post-match analysis, with the recriminations on both sides”.

He said: “We can concentrate on reaching the final and let the dust settle. The only thing I would say is that there could have been only one hour’s play because the game was stopped so much. You want to go to a game and see an hour and a half.”

Ferguson was also disappointed to learn that Manchester City’s fans at Blackburn Rovers on Monday had serenaded Yaya Toure with a song that called United “the Munichs” – in reference to the 1958 air disaster.

“It is a sad reflection on society. There are a lot of things that appal me in life. But there is nothing we can do about it.”