Sir Alex Ferguson has been choosing his words carefully since the Barclays Premier League title race entered its closing stages, but the Manchester United manager took a rare pot shot at a rival team yesterday when he suggested that Arsenal, if not out of contention entirely, will struggle to stay in the hunt after what he believes will be a gruelling trilogy of matches against Liverpool over the next ten days.

Arsenal’s title challenge is fading after a sequence of five matches that have yielded only four points and while Arsène Wenger will expect his team to win away to Bolton Wanderers this afternoon, Ferguson believes that the ensuing three matches in seven days against Liverpool — with their Champions League quarter-final tie punctuated by a Premier League fixture at the Emirates Stadium next Saturday — will be so draining that the London club will struggle to overturn their six-point deficit to United at the top of the table.

Asked yesterday whether Chelsea, rather than Arsenal, represent the greatest threat to United’s hopes of retaining the title, Ferguson said: “Yes, I think so. I think the three games Arsenal have against Liverpool will be very difficult, mentally and physically. Chelsea have an easier draw in the Champions League [against Fenerbahce]. They’re certain to go through.”

Arsenal’s fall can be charted to their capitulation when they lost 4-0 to United in an FA Cup fifth-round tie at Old Trafford in February, the start of a run that has brought only one victory in eight matches in all competitions. Ferguson believes that that was an important day for United, for whom it was the start of a significant improvement in form, but he was reluctant to say how much that defeat took out of Arsenal, preferring to focus on the injuries that they have endured since.

“I don’t know if that’s the case,” he said when asked about the impact of that FA Cup defeat on Arsenal. “That’s for Arsène Wenger. I think Arsenal have been unlucky with a few injuries. They lost Abou Diaby and Denilson for a while and Tomas Rosicky for a while, all from the midfield, which is a key area, and when that happens, you don’t have options to freshen things up.”

United, who take on Aston Villa at Old Trafford this evening, had a few injuries of their own to report yesterday, with the loss of Darren Fletcher for six weeks because of a knee injury and Louis Saha, the France forward, for three weeks with a hamstring problem. Fletcher’s injury, which all but rules him out for the remainder of the season, was suffered in the final moments of Scotland’s 1-1 draw with Croatia on Wednesday — compounding Ferguson’s irritation at the midweek friendly international schedule.

Ferguson appeared to be unhappy with Fabio Capello’s decision to keep Rio Ferdinand and Owen Hargreaves on the pitch throughout England’s 1-0 defeat by France in Paris on Wednesday, having done likewise with Ferdinand and Wes Brown, while playing Wayne Rooney for 87 minutes against Switzerland six weeks earlier.

“It seems to be our players that always play the full 90 minutes,” Ferguson said. “Look at the last internationals. We had nine who played 90 minutes. There were no other teams in the Premier League that had anything like that. So that is a big worry for us. We have had a bad blow with Darren and it emphasises the futility of playing these friendly games. It’s crazy.”

Ferguson said that Gary Neville, who was withdrawn from a reserve-team match against Newcastle United on Thursday, is not ready to return to the senior squad this evening after a 12-month absence, but the 33-year-old defender could feature in the match away to Middlesbrough a week tomorrow.