Let's look forward, not back - 08/04/2003

I didn’t travel to Liverpool for the Everton game, and as a result I watched the game at home on TV. It was a big disappointment and although the refereeing decision when against us, I’m sure we can play better. Everton are a good Premiership team, their league position speaks for itself, but if we’re to win competitions such as the Premiership – it’s teams like Everton that we must beat.

It’s important to look forward, Man Utd on Saturday is still a massive game for us, however instead of looking up at Man Utd and Arsenal, we’re now looking down at Chelsea. Last season we finished fourth and this year we’re now in third place – it’s important to make progress and that’s why we need to keep going. Of course qualifying for the Champions League is fantastic, but we’ll enjoy the summer even more if we can stay in that third spot.

Hopefully I’ll be fit for the Man Utd game, the injury happened when I was training with the national team in Peru. I read some reports that said it was a thigh injury, but it’s my groin that’s causing the problems. As a result I missed our two games, a 2-0 loss and a 3-0 win against Chile. It’s a long way to travel, especially when you can’t play. But I enjoyed being back home and it was good to meet up with the Peru players. Having felt that the injury was clearing up I started training, but just five minutes before the end of training last week, it went again. There’s absolutely no point in taking risks, so I’ll give it a few days, have some treatment with the physio’s and see how it goes. It’s going to one of the biggest games of the season on Saturday and I want to be involved, but that’s up to the injury and to the gaffer.

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