And the Swede is determined he and his team-mates will not have to suffer the same bitter experience as the 1999 Gunners side, who were beaten 2-1 by United at the same stage of the competition.

"Hopefully it goes better for us this time," said Ljungberg as he looked ahead to Saturday's last four showdown against their bitter rivals at Villa Park in Birmingham.

A superb solo goal from Ryan Giggs in injury time after Peter Schmeichel's last-minute save from a Dennis Bergkamp penalty gave United victory that day and the Reds went on to complete a treble of league, Cup and Champions League titles.

Now however it is Arsenal who are pursuing the treble and Ljungberg believes they will take heart from the way they dominated their opponents in Sunday's league encounter, despite the late goal by Louis Saha that enabled United to come away with a morale-boosting 1-1 draw.

"We showed against United in the league last week that we could make some good chances in the first half and we will take that with us to Villa Park," Ljungberg said.

"We were not happy just to draw in the end. We played a bit safe late in the game and it rebounded on us when we conceded with a few minutes to go. We were not very pleased.

"But we have learned from that and we know we can play even better on Saturday."

Ljungberg in particular should be raring to go after missing out on Sweden's win over his adopted country on Wednesday night in order to be fully fit for Saturday's clash.

French stars Patrick Vieira and Robert Pires were also spared international duty but Thierry Henry played in France's goalless draw in Holland.

With Tuesday's Champions League quarter-final second leg against Chelsea also in mind, Gunners boss Arsene Wenger has hinted he could even leave his star striker on the bench on Saturday.

Brazilian midfielder Gilberto is also set to be rested after travelling to South America for the midweek World Cup qualifier in Paraguay and Wenger will again be without the injured Ashley Cole, who is still battling to recover from a knee injury.

United go into Saturday's match knowing defeat will erase their last chance of some silverware with six weeks of the season still to go.

But defender Wes Brown is confident United have turned the corner.

"We showed a lot of spirit on Sunday which has lifted our self-belief and hopefully we can take that into tomorrow's game," Brown said.

"This game is our last shot at winning anything this season because Arsenal are running away with the league.

"If we don't win we will end up with nothing and that is a situation no-one wants.

Already without Louis Saha, who played earlier in the tournament for Fulham and is therefore ineligible, United boss Sir Alex Ferguson also faces an anxious wait to see if Ruud van Nistelrooy can start the game.

The Dutchman insists he will be fit but remains a major doubt with a knee injury which has prevented him from training this week.

Despite their injury worries and the constant stream of stories about the perceived crisis at Old Trafford, United have received a vote of confidence from the most unlikely source - Arsenal captain Patrick Vieira.

Chelsea may be snapping closer to the Gunners' heels in the league race, but Vieira has no doubt about who his side's biggest rivals are.

"You can never write off Manchester United, they have really talented players who can make the difference in any game," Vieira insisted.

"We are really close to one another and it always comes down to small mistakes or a piece of brilliance from one player. You need your special players to perform at a special time."