Arsenal beware: Fergie is hungry

Ferguson may have selected seven defenders for the FA Cup visit of title rivals Arsenal, but for the most part the Scot has been on all-out attack mode.
From his top-down media blackout following the defeat at Liverpool to a scathing assessment of referee Martin Atkinson's performance in the loss to Chelsea that landed him an improper conduct charge, Ferguson has been back to his most fiery.
He even used the programme for Saturday's win over the Gunners to lash out at Kenny Dalglish and former England boss Graham Taylor for recent comments made about him.
When he is using his matchday notes to call out Taylor, a man who last graced a dugout in 2003, there can be no doubting that Ferguson's hackles are up.
And, as Arsenal found out as a much-changed United dumped them out of their third cup competition in a fortnight, an angry Ferguson is hard to beat.
His United reign is littered with almost as many confrontations, rivalries and bugbears as it is trophies but the first half of this season saw him unusually content with his lot.
The pre-season suggestions that his continued failure to speak to the BBC would be dealt with severely had fizzled out, his team was busy compiling an unbeaten league run that eventually reached 29 matches and even the bombshell that Wayne Rooney wanted to leave was resolved with almost indecent haste.
Something was missing, though.
True, the on-field performances were not quite as emphatic as the statistics suggested - the squad that compiled that long undefeated streak were more 'improbables' than Arsenal's famous 'invincibles' - but Ferguson appeared short of his usual thunder too.
Maybe he lacked an outlet for his temper. At Chelsea, where once there was Jose Mourinho, now stands the deliberately withdrawn figure of Carlo Ancelotti. At Liverpool, Ferguson's friend Roy Hodgson had replaced the antagonistic Rafael Benitez. Over at the at the Emirates Stadium, meanwhile, Arsene Wenger remained.
The Frenchman has been one of Ferguson's greatest sparring partners over the years but at the beginning of the season, many had suggested that the emergence of Tottenham and Manchester City could leave him scrambling to preserve a place in the top four.
Now the landscape is different. Chelsea, after a couple of more prudent years, are the big-spending billionaires again. Liverpool are under the care of Dalglish, a man who personifies the Reds' glory days that Ferguson finds so distasteful. Wenger and Arsenal, meanwhile, are back on the map.
Having defeated Barcelona, albeit in just one leg rather than two, narrowed the gap in the league to barely a sliver and put together some enviable cup form, they once again threatened United's position at the peak of the English game.
Ferguson said this week that Arsenal's form has "rearranged the pecking order" and predicted a "revival of the rivalry" between the clubs.
If Arsenal do intend on avenging this defeat with a renewed scrap for the league then Dalglish, Taylor, Atkinson, the Old Trafford press pack and the FA can all attest that Ferguson is in no mood to back away from the fight.