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Manchester United will travel to Monaco on Thursday with a spring in their step after avoiding a potential banana skin at Fratton Park last night, a 1-0 victory moving the Barclays Premier League champions to within two points of Chelsea and Liverpool at the top of the table.

It is a measure of how little United relish trips to their bogey ground that Sir Alex Ferguson described the three points as a “bonus”, although with his team not in league action for another 18 days because of their participation in the European Super Cup against Zenit St Petersburg on Friday and the subsequent international break, they could ill afford to have lost further ground on the leaders, especially as their next two matches are away to Liverpool and Chelsea.

However, while the narrow score-line will only strengthen Ferguson’s desire to bring Dimitar Berbatov on board sooner rather than later, it flattered Portsmouth, who are bottom after two defeats. Harry Redknapp’s team may have beaten United on three of their past five visits to Fratton Park, but the gulf between the sides was greater than Darren Fletcher’s 32nd-minute goal, the culmination of a wonderful 13-pass move, suggested.

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“We played some excellent football,” Ferguson said. “It’s a difficult place to come. Last year we drew here, the year before we lost, so it’s a bonus. We tried to get a system where players were comfortable in their positions and we used them in the right way.” With Cristiano Ronaldo unlikely to return from injury before October - “I have never experienced a situation like this, being two months without kicking a ball,” the Portugal winger said last night. “I am not used to being sidelined” - Ferguson will now focus his attentions on attempting to prise Berbatov away from Tottenham Hotspur, who have threatened to let the Bulgaria striker rot in the reserves should his proposed move not be completed before the close of the transfer window on Monday.

United remain hopeful that a deal can be struck, even though Ferguson expressed “concern” last night that time was running out, with Tottenham continuing to play hard-ball despite the Old Trafford club lodging an improved offer of £25 million over the weekend.

Emil Dantchev, Berbatov’s agent, is in England trying to broker a deal, but while Tottenham are demanding more than £30 million and are reluctant to release the player until a successor has been lined up, a breakthrough is thought to be imminent.

“There’s only a week and you start to concern yourself, but we’ve shown tonight we’ve got a good quality of player here,” Ferguson said. “We would like to add to that, but we’ll have to see what happens.”

Berbatov was left out of the Tottenham squad for the 2-1 home defeat by Sunderland on Saturday because he was considered psychologically unfit to play and Juande Ramos, the North London club’s head coach, has said that he will monitor the player during training this week before deciding whether he is able to play against Chelsea on Sunday.

If Berbatov’s attitude does not change, Ramos has intimated that he will play the forward in the reserve team until there is an improvement.

Having lost 4-0 to Chelsea last Sunday, Redknapp, the Portsmouth manager, believes that his team have already played the two main contenders for the championship. “I was pleased at half-time, but we ran out of steam against their movement and passing,” he said. “They pop up from everywhere.

“There is not much difference between the two teams [United and Chelsea]. I do think United will be fine with the squad they have got, but I’m sure they will get Dimitar Berbatov and that will make them stronger.

“It looks as if two teams will slug it out and we have played them both. Liverpool and Arsenal have got it all to do to finish above them. The sign of a good team is that when they are passing, they have always got two or three options because their movement is so good and that’s what United had tonight.”