A hole in United defence without Rio

Manchester United defender and captain of England Rio Ferdinand is likely to be absent until the end of this campaign. This was announced by Sir Alex Ferguson today, speaking for the British media. "The situation with Rio is not good and we will be lucky if we got him before the end of the season," said Fergie about the state of one of his most important defenders. Ferdinand is out of the squad of the Scottish from the middle of January and he would miss the decisive battles of the Red Devils at the end of the season on three fronts - Premier League, Champions League and FA Cup.

All we have seen haw vital is Rio for Manchester United. The Premier League is getting more and more complicated with Arsenal just behind them. The team from London is focused only on Premiership and they are very tough rival for the first place competition. Arsenal are hungry for it, because their last trophy was in the season 2003/2004 in their incredible “unbeaten” year.