Can Fergie Play his Fab Four?

Manchester United fans got their first sight this season of Cristiano Ronaldo in the red shirt on Wednesday, but with the arrival of striker Dimitar Berbatov can Sir Alex Ferguson play all his big guns together?

It might not have been a problem many people could visualise when Berbatov arrived from Spurs on transfer deadline day for £30million, but with the attacking flair of Wayne Rooney, Carlos Tevez and Ronaldo already on board, can they work effectively in a team?

United won the Double last season without an out-and-out striker and Ferguson's first job over the summer was to address that problem. But with the arrival of Berbatov it will be interesting to see how he combines them into a team. Sir Alex presumably believes he can mould the quartet into an attacking phenomenon and if they click it would be impossible to find such a talented forward line anywhere in the world.

But there are major reservations as to whether United can field all four players on the field at the same time regardless of the work-rate of Rooney and Tevez. It would mean a huge responsibility on the remaining two midfield players, assuming Fergie sticks with a back four.

Any pair from the likes of Owen Hargreaves, Michael Carrick, Darren Fletcher, Paul Scholes or Anderson would have to be superbly disciplined and basically their emphasis would be on defence and protecting the back four when United's forward forays break down.

Ferguson employed Rooney, Berbatov and Tevez against Liverpool and things did not work out as the champions were beaten 2-1 and with the clash at Chelsea looming he is highly unlikely to add Berbatov to that trio if the Bulgarian striker shakes off a knee injury.

United's success over recent years has been built on a 4-4-2 formation with one of the strikers - usually Rooney -just playing off the lone front man. But Fergie seems intent on making changes to that formation or at least helping United adapt to a different attacking line-up.

Sunday's Stamford Bridge battle will be a superb spectacle and with United at football odds of 4.1 we await with interest United's teamsheet.