ferguson rues failure to cut gap boss sir alex ferguson was left ruing manchester united s failure to close the gap on chelsea  everton and arsenal after his side s 1-1 draw with fulham.  premiership leaders chelsea and the gunners endured a 2-2 stalemate on sunday  giving united the chance to make up some ground in the league. but ferguson said:  i think what makes it so bad is that both our rivals dropped points at the weekend.  it was a great opportunity - and we haven t delivered.  united went ahead through alan smith in the 33rd minute before bouba diop s superb 25-yard strike cancelled out the visitors  lead in the 87th minute. ferguson described the result as an  absolute giveaway  after united had earlier missed a host of opportunities to finish off the encounter. he said:  it was a good performance - some of the football was fantastic - but we just didn t finish them off.  in fairness  it s a fantastic strike from the fulham player.  the result leaves ferguson s side fourth in the league on 31 points - four points behind arsenal and a further five back from chelsea.