Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has admitted there is a "massive chance" Arsenal will now go on to take their Barclays Premier League crown.
The Scot regards being top at New Year as one of the season's significant milestones and that position is now occupied again by the Gunners, who won 4-1 at Everton to go two points clear after United had stumbled to a 2-1 defeat at West Ham.
He said: "I always feel if you reach New Year on top you have a massive chance. We still have a great chance but obviously it was disappointing to lose the way we did."
Unsurprisingly however, the League's most successful manager was unwilling to write off his players following one below-par performance on a day when Wayne Rooney was absent through illness.
He added: "It's a great team we've got and we just have to galvanise ourselves and get the reply you always look for after a bad performance.
"We need to go on a long run now because we are coming to the crucial part of the season. In many ways the season starts mushrooming.
"There are league games, Champions League football and FA Cup ties. It's a congested fixture list and you have to respond and play football properly."
The new year - which starts the day after Ferguson's 66th birthday - begins with a home game with Birmingham, who are managed by one of his former players at Aberdeen, Alex McLeish.
And Ferguson was confident Rooney would be back for that game along with fellow illness victim Michael Carrick.
He said: "Wayne and Michael should be okay, they were both suffering from a virus. Michael was taken ill during the night, the doctor attended to him on Saturday morning and there was no way he could have taken part.
"Wayne was ruled out on Friday. There's little bits going down at this time of year, quite a few clubs have got it I suppose. But hopefully they will be ready for Tuesday."
The Hammers came back from behind to record their third successive victory over United thanks to headed goals from set-pieces from substitute Anton Ferdinand and Matthew Upson.
United had taken an early lead through Cristiano Ronaldo's 18th goal of the season but the Portugal international missed a second-half penalty which would have significantly decreased West Ham's comeback chances.
West Ham goalkeeper Robert Green was keen to take credit even though he never touched the ball.
He said: "I showed him a lot of room to my left. I then moved that way to try to throw him a dummy that I was going to go to my left. I went to my right and he missed it with a horrible strike.
"I would have liked him to hit the target because I think I would have saved it. For a player of that quality it's surprising."
United midfielder Darren Fletcher was quick to defend his team-mate.
He said: "It's not him to blame, he's been fantastic for us and won us many games and many points. We were still in a winning position so it's nothing to do with the penalty that lost us the game. It was individual errors at set-pieces that cost us."
Defender Wes Brown agreed. He said: "Ronny missed it but we were still winning 1-0 and we were still in control. We dropped too deep after that, which put pressure on us. We conceded from two set-pieces that we should have dealt with. We have let ourselves down."
West Ham will try to repeat the trick at Arsenal on New Year's Day and manager Alan Curbishley was confident his players could rise to the big occasion again.
He said: "You have to give us some credit: their exceptional players didn't cause us too much damage because everyone was putting so much effort in. When you play the top teams, sides sometimes stand off and allow the game to become a passive game. If you do that, they will destroy you.
"I had to remind myself that we had only lost two in the last 10 games and they were against very good teams. Sometimes you end up worrying too much about the opposition and forget about examining how your own side can cause problems."
Source : www.sportinglife.com
