Owen Hargreaves knows he is not guaranteed to start Manchester United's Champions League clash with Lyon, despite scoring on Saturday.The England midfielder notched his first goal for United as they eased to a 3-0 win over Fulham at Craven Cottage to move within one point of leaders Arsenal at the top of the Premier League.

The 27-year-old has started just seven of the last 18 games - during which time he has also suffered back and rib problems - although he played in the 1-1 draw in the last-16 first leg at Lyon before being left out of last week's 5-1 win at Newcastle.

However, he insists he is comfortable with the rotation policy manager Sir Alex Ferguson is employing as the Old Trafford outfit target the treble of Premier League, Champions League and FA Cup.

Hargreaves said: "We are all part of the jigsaw puzzle. Nobody is going to play in all the games at United."

Ryan Giggs, Nemanja Vidic - who is nursing a calf injury - and Michael Carrick did not figure at all against Fulham while Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo - with 42 goals between them this season - and Anderson were all on the bench for all but the last 20 minutes.

Hargreaves struck his maiden United goal with a sumptuous free kick in the 15th minute before Park Ji-Sung headed his first of an injury-ridden campaign and a late Simon Davies own goal completed the scoring for the Red Devils.

Hargreaves continued: "You trust the boss, don't you, with all the experience he has.

"So far this season, as far as I'm concerned, he has picked the right team pretty much every time and I thought everyone who played at Fulham did really well. I thought all those that played against Newcastle did a great job, too.

"I just think all our players have something different to bring to the table. So, depending on how we want to play, we can perform in different formations.

"You look at a 3-0 win with Rooney, Ronaldo and Anderson all coming on late from the bench and it is quite remarkable. And I think the depth and balance in our squad could make the difference in the end."

As well as the Lyon tie, United face Portsmouth in the FA Cup quarter-final next weekend and he acknowledged the value of all the coming games.

He said: "They are big from here on in. We knew there was only 11 (league) games to play coming to Fulham and every game is going to be a cup final. There are some tough ones yet."

United are closing in on the Gunners and would have gone top if their rivals had not scored an injury-time equaliser against Aston Villa.

Asked if he thought Arsenal, who visit Old Trafford in April, are faltering, Hargreaves said: "I don't think so but sometimes it is easier to get to the top of the league than to stay there.

"It's a big part of the season now, definitely. It's more important than the beginning half but you need to play well in the beginning to put yourself in that position.

"I still think Chelsea are a bit of a dark horse. They have been playing really well and now a great result at West Ham, 4-0 away. So I think it could even go down to the final day. Very exciting."

The former Bayern Munich player also paid tribute to Paul Scholes, who is back from a long-term knee injury.

Hargreaves said: "Scholesy is brilliant. His range of passing is still like always and defensively, he was really good, especially in the first half.

"But it's not just him. With the players we have we know we can play in any way against anyone - and probably beat them as well.

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