Manchester United were absolutely awesome on Saturday and outclassed Arsenal in that 4-0 win.

I know people will say Arsenal weren't up for it and didn't show much respect for the FA Cup, but United didn't allow them to settle and that was the big difference.

United were coming into that match on the back of a defeat to Man City and I know how I would have felt as a player after a couple of bad results, particularly losing a derby game.

Nobody likes getting beat in a derby, least of all at home on an emotional day.

I think they all realised they had to give something back and it wouldn't have mattered if it was a kick-about in the park or an FA Cup final, they were going to be up for that game on Saturday night.

All those things came together and that's why the magic happened against a top team like Arsenal.

The work-rate was tremendous. When I was at Liverpool, we always said Ian Rush was the first line of defence. Well, for Ian Rush, read Wayne Rooney because he absolutely excellent.

He worked the frontline and everybody else responded behind him. They closed down at every opportunity, choked Arsenal and Rooney could have scored three or four himself quite easily

Will they be able to repeat that sort of performance on Wednesday? It's hard to say because a Champions League knock-out game is quite different to an FA Cup match.

Threat

United have got to play this game in the way they normally would. They'll play with one up front and one just behind, as opposed to two out-and-out strikers, and a four-man midfield with either of the two central players able to get forward.

They've got goalscoring down to a tee from all kinds of positions and they are always a threat. And I think they'll need that against this Lyon team, I really do.

Lyon are one of those teams in the last few years who have threatened to break the mould of teams from Italy, England and Spain getting to the latter stages of the Champions League, but they've not quite done it.

They've run away with the French League for six seasons. This year they're at the top, but there's a bit more competition for them this time around.

Having won the league so many times, other things will start to take priority. The fans and the people who run the club start setting their sights higher and they will want to stake a claim for the Champions League.

The French League is currently fourth or fifth in the European football stakes and Lyon will see themselves as the team that can potentially lift French football a notch higher.

Precedent

They have set a precedent in the last few seasons, but they want to get further than the quarter-finals, which is as far as they've got in recent seasons. I can see them having a really good go at the Champions League this year.

I think they could give Manchester United a run for their money. They will be really, really up for this game.

The team had a big wake-up call when they lost at home to Rangers earlier in this competition. I watched that game for Soccer Special and while I was very impressed with Rangers, I was very disappointed with Lyon.

Even though they were playing at home, they failed to create and they failed to break down Rangers, who do not exactly have one of the great defences in European football.

But they were fired up for that do-or-die return match in Glasgow when they needed to win to go through and on that night they showed their true potential.

We'll see more of that sort of performance on Wednesday. There won't be any need to motivate the Lyon players and I think it will be a really tough game for United.

They'll certainly have to watch out for Juninho, who is quite extraordinary with his set pieces.

They've got a dangerous goalscorer in Karim Benzema and Hartem Ben Arfa is another very good player. He's only young, but I know Liverpool have been tracking him for the last three years. They've got some real talent in that team.

However, I still think there is a massive gap between the top of French football and the top of English football and I think Man United will get what they need - and an away draw would be a good result.