Paul Scholes is expected to make his long-awaited return from injury this weekend, with Sir Alex Ferguson, the Manchester United manager, confident that the midfield player will make all the difference to the club’s season as they step up their pursuit of silverware on three fronts.

After more than three months out with knee ligament damage, Scholes is likely to be named among the substitutes for the FA Cup fourth-round match at home to Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday.

Top of the Barclays Premier League and safely through to the knockout phase of the Champions League, where they face Lyons in the last 16 next month, it says a great deal about the strength of United’s squad that they scarcely seem to have missed a player of Scholes’s quality. One of the reasons for that has been the excellent form of Anderson, but even with the 19-year-old Brazilian, Owen Hargreaves, Michael Carrick and Darren Fletcher to call upon in central midfield, Ferguson believes that it is impossible to overemphasise the importance of Scholes and thinks that the return of the “ginger pimpernel” could give United the edge in the title race.

“I am more confident [about the league] now that Scholes is coming back because he brings a bit of class at important times in games,” the United manager said. “That’s what Scholes is probably best at, producing moments that turn games, so it’s a big bonus for us having him back.

“One of his big assets down the years has been appearing in the box late. He has scored 138 goals for us from midfield, which is quite unique, but, even then, his biggest assets are his passing, composure and thinking during a game. At 33, I regard him just as highly as I did when he was 23.”

Scholes has been on the sidelines since October 22, when he underwent surgery after injuring himself during a training session before the Champions League group match away to Dynamo Kiev.

Ryan Giggs is another who continues to defy the age barrier. Giggs needs to play only 18 more matches – coincidentally, the minimum number of games United have left this season – to break Sir Bobby Charlton’s record of 759 appearances for the club, with Ferguson hopeful that the winger will reach the milestone before the end of this season.

It has become commonplace for managers to heap praise on their players even before they have achieved anything notable, but Ferguson was hardly guilty of exaggeration yesterday when he suggested that Giggs and Scholes would still be around after he calls time on his career at United and that, when all things are considered, they are probably the two greatest players he has worked with.

“What I’ve come to realise with these two players is that I can no longer see an end to their careers,” he said. “In fact, I don’t expect to see an end. There must come a day when it will [end], but the way it’s looking now, I can’t see that end coming. I think I’ll be away from the club before they will. Bearing in mind their longevity, they must be the best two players I’ve ever had.”

Ferguson has been impressed with the manner in which Scholes has recovered from injury in recent years, not least from an eye condition that threatened to curtail his career, while the manager still marvels at the fitness of Giggs.

“I still think we will get three more years out of Scholes because he comes back from injuries very well,” Ferguson said. “Players like him and Giggs, who look after themselves, give themselves extra years. Giggs has been flying this season.

“He came on [as a substitute in the 2-0 Premier League win] at Reading and the stats show that he made 45 sprints in the second half. That’s incredible for a player of 34.”