Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson doesn't expect his players to slack off in the league.

With Manchester City so far adrift, the determination has to come from within. But if Ferguson is to be believed, that will not be an issue.

"The league games are even more important because we don't want to surrender our lead," he said.

"We don't want to give our immediate opponents an advantage. That accentuates it more for me and is why I place so much importance on Norwich.

"The similarities to 1999 are that our cup run was a really hard one, as were our European ties.

"We were in a group with Barcelona and Bayern Munich, then we got a quarter-final against Inter Milan and a semi-final against Juventus. This year the group stage was okay but we got Real Madrid straight up.

"In the FA Cup we have had Premier League teams all the time which we also experienced in 1999."