Rio Ferdinand claims Manchester United would have accepted their present Premier League position if they had been offered it at the start of the season. United currently sit in second place, two points behind leaders Arsenal, after a narrow victory over Birmingham City yesterday.

With only three goals conceded on home soil this term, the United defence is once again providing the platform for a sustained title challenge and with Arsenal still to visit Old Trafford in April, Ferdinand is content with the current situation.

Of infinitely less pleasure to the 29-year-old is last Saturday's defeat at West Ham United. Not only did Ferdinand have to suffered the indignity of losing against his former club, he had to watch brother Anton score the goal that brought the West Ham level.

"We are still there or thereabouts in the league and if we had been offered this position at the start of the season, we would have taken it," he said. "But nine points from four games over Christmas is not satisfactory for me at all.

"I have had an awful Christmas period, losing to West Ham and my brother scoring as well. But sometimes, you have to take these things on the chin and make sure they don't happen again."

The imminent return from injury of Gary Neville and the likely availability of Paul Scholes from mid-February reinforces the belief United are in a better position to withstand the rigours of what lies ahead than Arsenal, who are about to lose players to the African Nations Cup and have two extra games in January to think about after making progress to the Carling Cup semi-finals.

"The run-in could be exciting for the first time in a long time, with other teams involved," Ferdinand said. "Hopefully we will be involved because we have the players to do it."

Ferdinand feels he and his defensive colleagues must extend an impressive record of 12 clean sheets to give the team's attacking players the chance to win matches. "We take pride in clean sheets," he said. "We always harp on about the fact if we keep clean sheets, we have players capable of scoring goals.

"It is down to us lads at the back to put ourselves in front of the goal and make sure the ball doesn't go into the back of the net. We have a good record defensively. That is the platform we can build on to be a championship-winning team. It happened last year and it would be great if it happened again."