"There are two things I'd like to say. Firstly, congratulations to Liverpool for winning with an emphatic score, but I think... it is a very flattering score."For big spells in the game, Manchester United dominated but they made mistakes on the day that usually they don't do. Some players looked a bit mentally tired. It opens up the race for the title, even though I still believe Manchester United are in a strong position with the game in hand."
And the papers don't call him delusional? We're still getting that about Sir Alex today, from Daniel Taylor on The Guardian Blog:
Ferguson made himself look so absurd with his game of bluff about United being the "better team"
Arsene's comments are just reported, without opinion, both in The Independent and The Telegraph.
Sir Alex is still getting criticism for not speaking to Sky on Saturday, Kevin Eason in The Times takes the moral highground, "think of the fans!":
Sir Alex Ferguson's answer to trouble appears similar to the average 13-year-old girl who has been given a rollicking by her parents. He runs to his room, slams the door behind him and refuses to speak a word. ...
Perhaps, too, the millions of fans around the world claimed by United might have liked to hear an explanation. ...
“We are not worried about the interview being turned down. Managers should know that they are not speaking to us but through us to the public, who have made the effort to watch them play.”
As a United fan I wasn't concerned by his lack of post match interview, I'd moved away from the TV after the final whistle, not wanting to stick around and watch the gloating over our defeat. Thanks for sticking up for me though Kevin, it's nice to know you care... Let's face it, who would the interview actually have been for, as Daniel Taylor puts it, "just about every non-United follower in the country [who] wanted them to fail," who would have loved watching Sir Alex after such a defeat.
Simon Barnes has some good words on this sort of thing in The Times:
Manchester United lost on Saturday and a strange sadness overwhelms me. Not because United are particularly close to my heart, but because of the malicious pleasure that this result will bring to so many supporters. It was a belter of a match, the sort of thing that reminds you why sport, and football, remain a fascination, why you never get sated with real, high-quality sporting drama.
It was packed full of meaning, and Liverpool won by the extraordinary scoreline of 4-1. Breathtaking. All sports have their points, but no sport can do surprise like football. And if we could leave it at that, I'd be perfectly happy.
Ian Wright relives his glory days in The Sun in an attempt to convince himself that we might not win the league.
The Daniel Taylor article mentioned a couple of times already looks at past title challenges going off the rails and concludes that nothing significant actually happened, and that, probably, we'll still win the league.
Kevin McCarra on The Guardian blog has an article, from the "neutral's" perspective, hoping that we'll fail in The Champions League, given that we're too far ahead in the Premier League for others to take advantage of our "faltering".
And The Mirror have some positive words from Paddy Crerand:
"Do you think Alex will be happy with that?" said the Scot.
"Definitely not. He won't be happy with the result, the performance and in particular, the way United defended.
"He'll point out one or two things to his players this week and I expect to see the right response at Fulham on Saturday.
"I still think United will win the title and I can't see them losing another three league games, which is what they would have to do.
"Liverpool and Arsenal are still the only teams to beat United in the Premier League and Arsenal are the only ones left to play at Old Trafford."
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