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United strikes fear into rivals

It may not have started the season with the swagger of a defending champion, but having swept all before it of late, John O'Shea believes Manchester United has rediscovered its fear factor and senses opposing teams are running scared.

United's 4-2 win over Dynamo Kiev in the Champions League in Ukraine on Tuesday was the third successive game in which Alex Ferguson's team has found the net four times.

With Wayne Rooney, Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez now scaling the heights expected of them, O'Shea believes Manchester United could take some stopping in its pursuit of yet more silverware.

Such bold declarations will carry greater weight if United can overcome Arsenal, which is probably in even finer form, at Emirates Stadium in London on Saturday week.

However, it is hard not to have been impressed by the strength in depth of a team operating without many first-choice players.

Owen Hargreaves, Michael Carrick, Louis Saha, Gary Neville, Park Ji Sung, Mikael Silvestre and Ben Foster are injured, and they were joined on the treatment table this week by Patrice Evra, the left back, and, most worryingly, Paul Scholes.

The midfield player underwent a scan on a knee problem sustained during training in Kiev on Monday.

While no medical bulletin has been forthcoming from Old Trafford, the injury to Scholes is cause for concern.

But with such a wealth of talent, United has demonstrated it is better equipped to deal with a raft of injuries than last season, when a long casualty list resulted in it tripping up in the semi-finals of the Champions League against AC Milan and in the FA Cup final against Chelsea.

But it is the form of Rooney, Ronaldo, Tevez and Ryan Giggs that had O'Shea delighted as he left the Olimpiyskiy Stadium in the Ukrainian capital. Rooney, on the eve of his 22nd birthday, took his goals tally to seven in six matches for club and country, Ronaldo's two goals meant that he has scored six in his past seven starts, while Tevez is starting to show why Ferguson courted the Argentina forward so persistently in the off-season.

"It seems that every time we attack, with the pace and power of Wayne, Ronaldo, Tevez and Giggsy, who looked like he was 19 at some stages against Kiev, we can score," O'Shea said.

"Training against them gives you a great opportunity to improve your technique because nine times out of 10 they are still going past you.

"It's great to be involved in a team that has so much attacking power because you know that, while it was disappointing to have conceded two goals against Kiev, we have been keeping a lot of clean sheets and just know that we are going to score goals.

"You sense that some teams are maybe scared of us. Nights like this one against Kiev make teams aware of what we are capable.

"When teams come to Old Trafford they like to play five in midfield and try to play for the draw, but with the attack we have, they are going to be very wary of just trying to defend against that lot."

Such is the potency of United's attack that O'Shea believes his job as a defender or midfield player is made all the easier and thinks the team is starting to reap the benefits of having such a big squad.

"It's not a case of feeling unbeatable, but we know that with the players we have, we're going to be creating chances in games," he said.

"There is great strength in depth in this squad and that's a difference between this squad and previous ones.

"We're getting stretched to the limits at the minute, but we're showing we can more than cope."