Ferguson steeled for hardest 18 days in United's history

Manchester United prepare to face Liverpool, Newcastle, Arsenal and Blackburn - plus Real Madrid twice - in daunting sequence of matches

Although Man-chester United supporters have begun fierce protests against 12.30 kick-offs, the one advantage is that Sir Alex Ferguson will be able to watch the Grand National in the manager's room at Old Trafford. As those who have followed his horse, Rock of Gibraltar, will testify, the United manager is more at home on the flat and he will assuredly not be backing Youlneverwalkalone. The fences at Aintree, however, are every bit as daunting as the hurdles Manchester United face over the next 18 days.

First up is Liverpool, a side which have beaten them five times in their last six meetings, followed by journeys to three daunting venues; the Bernabeu, St James' Park and Highbury. Then, on 23 April, United stage their European Cup quarter-final second leg against Real Madrid, a team they have beaten only once in six previous attempts.

Ferguson cannot remember such a sequence in his 17 years at Old Trafford, especially not at this business end of the campaign. Should they fail to endure it, United will have to come to terms with a second trophyless season; a situation their captain, Roy Keane, has described as "unacceptable".

"I can't think of a time when you've had five games wedged together that are this important," Ferguson said yesterday. "To put them all together now and when you look where Newcastle are, where Arsenal are and where we are and with Liverpool chasing a Champions' League place plus Real Madrid... you can't get any bigger games than these."

Last spring, Keane recalls looking around him and seeing one of his team-mates shaking with nerves as the teams lined up for the anthems; and that was in the relatively modest setting of Leverkusen's BayArena in a European Cup semi-final they were expected to win. At the Bernabeu in Madrid, the stage will be greater, the nerves tauter, a time to disprove Keane's assertion that all some team-mates cared about were "Rolex watches, garages full of cars, mansions, set up for life, forgetting about the game, having lost the hunger that got you the Rolex, the cars, the mansion".

Ferguson has not had much time to prepare United for today's contest. Until Thursday, he jokingly states that most of his players have "been away on their holidays" with their national teams. "On Saturday at 12.30 we have to get on with the show. In December we beat Liverpool, Newcastle, Arsenal, Deportivo and Basle, all around the same time. They have the experience. If everybody stays fit, we can cope in terms of numbers and they have the ability."

The statistics are worrying. Since Arsène Wenger and Ferguson went head to head in 1996, Arsenal have finished stronger over the last 10 games in every season bar one. St James' Park has been the scene of three heavy United defeats in recent years in which they have conceded 12 goals and had Keane sent off twice. Ferguson has steered his team through some fearsome rapids – in 1999 they survived two FA Cup semi-finals with Arsenal and two European Cup semi-finals against Juventus in quick succession. But should the Premiership title return to Old Trafford for the eighth time, this may be the most remarkable of them all.

Ferguson is sure Gérard Houllier will attempt a repeat of the tactics that has given the Liverpool manager such success over their greatest enemy: Sit back, absorb pressure and strike on the break. Given that Chelsea, Liverpool's main rivals for the fourth and final Champions' League place – who play United at Stamford Bridge on the last afternoon of the season – have a relatively simple task at Sunderland, Ferguson hinted that Liverpool might attack more than usual. They may have to win. United definitely do.

"If we're going to win the league, we have to win games like these. Everyone in the club is aware of that and I think you'll see a very determined effort by us. They are at the stage of their careers in which they enjoy challenges rather than the mundane things. If you look at our record, we have dropped points to Blackburn, Leeds, Bolton, Manchester City... all local games that in their minds maybe don't command the same level of importance that Newcastle, Real Madrid and Deportivo do.

"Maybe it's wrong to expect them to have their foot on the gas all the time. We have in the past won the league by winning ordinary games and for the first time this season at least we have dropped points to local rivals – too much so."

When it was pointed out to him that Ruud van Nistelrooy, who Ferguson reckons is "much stronger than last season, you can see that in him," might be spurred on by not having won a trophy at Old Trafford, his manager retorted. "They should all be that way. They won't have a better chance. It's in black and white now. Win all your games and you win the league."

Talking of matters black and white, there is Newcastle to consider as championship challengers; a wild card that might turn out to be an ace. Should they win at Everton tomorrow and beat United at St James' next Saturday, the road to Sir Bobby Robson's first domestic championship is an open, downhill avenue. They face no team higher than Fulham.

"The wild card is no wild card, Newcastle are a live danger," Ferguson remarked. "You look at their last three games [Sunderland, Birmingham and West Brom] they could be playing two teams who are already relegated. I don't care who it is; when a team is relegated it takes a big edge away from them. And they have us at home; their home record is fantastic and they will think they can do something. Arsenal and ourselves could be knocking lumps out of each other on the following Wednesday, and if we do, they are in a fantastic position."