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Middlesbrough vs Manchester United
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Darren Fletcher has warned his Manchester United team-mates their march to a third straight Premier League title could be halted today at Middlesbrough.
Although the biggest game of United's season is Tuesday's Champions League semi-final second leg at Arsenal, Fletcher hailed today's trip to the Riverside as equally important.
United have won just three of their last eight visits there and with Boro fighting for survival, Fletcher said Fergie's men can't afford to ease up.
"The return game at Arsenal is massive but our focus now has to be on Middlesbrough," he said.
"It's hard to top a Champions League semi-final, but you can't just raise your game for occasions like that and forget about fixtures like Middlesbrough. If you do that, you'll get hurt. That's why we have to raise our game every time we play and make sure we meet the challenge at Boro.
"United are in town and Boro are fighting for their lives to beat relegation, so it will be a full house and their crowd will be right up for it.
"We've got experience of difficult matches up there, so we know what it's going to be like.
"We're not going into the unknown and it's up to us to rise to the situation because we're fighting for the title.
"This is an exciting challenge for us. We're fighting for the Premier League and the Champions League and we have to rise to that challenge." Fletcher knows only too well how difficult it can be at the Riverside, a stadium marooned on the bleak wastelands of Teesside, which has claimed many big-name scalps in the past.
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Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool have all lost there in recent seasons and Fletcher was part of the United side slammed by ex-skipper Roy Keane after a 4-1 defeat there in 2005. Keane's infamous outburst on MUTV was deemed too critical to broadcast and sealed his Old Trafford exit.
"I was in the team that lost 4-1 up there," said Fletcher. "It was very disappointing at the time, but we've had a couple of decent results against them since then.
"We've all learned from the likes of Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes and Gary Neville, that what you've won is in the past. It's about what you can still win.
"That's what has echoed down from all those players and it's exciting to be so near and yet so far from the big prizes." Fergie has promised major changes today with the Arsenal game in mind. Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney and Edwin van der Sar are all expected to be rested.
With Rio Ferdinand out with a rib injury, Jonny Evans will partner Nemanja Vidic in central defence, while the Da Silva twins - Rafael and Fabio - will take the full-back roles.
Fergie will risk no injuries to his major players ahead of Arsenal, but Fletcher pointed to the impressive depth of United's personnel when he said: "We have a really great squad. Look at the bench on Wednesday and the players who weren't involved.
"There's been a freshness to the team all season because of that."
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