Manchester: Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has backed his side to defeat Chelsea in Saturday's top-of-the-table Premier League clash, even without the assistance of leading goalscorer Wayne Rooney.
Rooney hobbled off at full-time following United's 2-1 defeat to Bayern Munich in Tuesday's Champions League quarter-final first leg encounter, with Ferguson confirming that the England striker would be out of action for "two to three weeks" with an ankle injury.
The ex-Everton star has been in inspirational form for the Premier League champions this term, although Ferguson believes his side have the ability to cope with the absence of Rooney against Chelsea.
"I'm sure they are not going to let this (Rooney's injury) upset them in terms of what's ahead of them," the Scot said.
"They know the incentive of tomorrow. They know the incentive of Wednesday against Bayern Munich. Do you think they are honestly worrying whether Wayne Rooney is going to cost them it by not being there? Not at all.
"There's enough ability in this team to win without two or three of our players. There's goals in the team.
"We've got to improve our performance level from the Bayern game first of all. But we will do that. They have done it [without Rooney] before - they've done that a few times.
"He is a loss, of course. You want all your best players every game but if you look at us this season, it's not been the case.
"We've been missing defenders and struggled through and have stumbled to the point where we are a point ahead in the league, have a quarter-final tie against Bayern with an away-goal advantage and have won the League Cup. So we have not done bad. We're there."
United will undoubtedly be relying on Dimitar Berbatov to step up in Rooney's absence and ahead of the title showdown with Chelsea, Ferguson has moved to heap praise on the Bulgarian attacker.
"You cannot go into a game with the attitude you cannot lose," he added.
"You must always try to win, especially at Old Trafford. Our record at Old Trafford is good. It's a strong place.
"And the one thing you cannot dismiss is Berbatov's fantastic talent.
"I would have thought it' s maybe 80-20 in his favour when it comes to the supporters. About 80 per cent recognise his abilities. We sign a big player and if he's not scoring 50 goals a season and 16 overhead kicks we get a dissenting voice.
"Everyone's got their own favourites in football. It happens. Supporters have diverse views."
Just one point separates United from Chelsea at the top of the Premier League and Ferguson has reiterated his belief that the title could be decided by goal difference come the end of the season.
"If we win, we go four points clear with five games left," he continued.
"If Chelsea win, it's two points ahead of us with five games left. A draw, nothing changes, and it'll be very tight until the end of the season. And as I have been saying for the last couple of weeks, goal difference may come into it.
"With Chelsea putting seven past Aston Villa last weekend, it turned the whole goal difference upside down.
"We had that nice advantage, but it's only two goals and that can change in a couple of games."
Saturday's early kick-off will be officiated by Mike Dean, a decision criticised by Burnley boss Brian Laws, although the United manager refused to be drawn on discussing the referee's role in proceedings at Old Trafford.
"You want good refereeing any time, no matter what game it is. It's silly for anyone - myself or Ancelotti - to come out and have opinions on that," he said.
"Ancelotti is a man of great experience, he's won two European Cups. He was a great player, a good lad. I don't think there has been any failure on his part, he's done well.
"He's only a point behind us, in the semi-final of the FA Cup and the disappointment was being knocked out of the European Cup but it was an incredible, performance from Inter Milan to knock Chelsea out."
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