In the light of United's miserable display against their rivals, Manchester City, Sir Alex Ferguson now faces a stern test leading in to the end of the season. On Sunday his players looked jaded and sluggish, the football was poor in all; the defense didn't concentrate and there was no creativity up-front with Wayne Rooney absent.

Sir Alex's call for United to remain unbeaten for the rest of the season has been ignored by his players whilst his other title contenders, Arsenal and Chelsea, have been steadily picking up points.

The Manchester United players have been at the top of the table in recent years only to see the title slip away in the last few years. But the club ethos is their never-say-die attitude to football. This has led them to salvage points late on in matches when people had already written them off; most memorably that emphatic final in Barcelona almost ten years ago now.

With Louis Saha and Gary Neville close to fitness and the rest of the first team free from suspension, Sir Alex will now have hesitation in ringing the changes if he feels the current crop aren't playing to the required standard.

After all, on a day that started with Sir Bobby Charlton looking on from the crowd hoping that he would be as entertained with the football on show as the football the Busby Babes produced, he was probably left feeling the same as the rest of the 76,000 in attendance—frustrated and short changed.

While I’m sure there won’t be a huge backlash aimed towards the manager for this defeat, he needs to pick his players up and motivate them for the next match. The players need to understand that Arsenal are not going to slip away in the title race this season. Not only are Arsenal not going to go on a losing streak but it also looks like Chelsea are getting very close to catching the Red Devils.

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