Pop Champagne

All the papers concentrate on the finish to the relegation battle as well as goings on at Chelsea; a few words on our celebrations and match reports make up our coverage in today's papers.

Henry Winter's report focuses on Blackpool, but there's a bit of praise for us and our response to going 2-1 down:

United showed the strength in depth that helped bring a rapturously received 19th title, the quickness of mind and body in possession and an ability to spread goals around. United have overturned far more daunting deficits than this. They kept calm, kept the ball and sent a wrecking ball through Blackpool’s reverie.

The match report in The Manchester Evening News starts fittingly with a tribute to Owen Hargreaves who, sadly, but not unexpectedly, won't be getting a new contract:

...for Owen Hargreaves his Carrington training ground locker had already been cleared out and wasn't at the crowning of the title winners.

The midfielder who has suffered a torrid time in his United career battling against the chronic knee tendinitis, and subsequent niggling injuries has been told he won't have the chance of extending his stay on a pay-as-you-play deal and will have to try and resurrect his career away from Manchester.

It is a sad departure for a man who should have played a far bigger part in occasion like this since 2007 at United.But the stadium was a place for celebration and it would have been no place for Hargreaves.

Sam Wallace's report in The Independent concentrates on Blackpool, just the odd passage, including this, which seems to have a sly dig at us for bigging up our historic 19th title:

As for Manchester United, they could not have been accused of underplaying the significance of their record-breaking 19th title yesterday, not with every area of the stadium festooned with the number. If the battle for a club like United is to defeat the complacency that comes with such sustained success then yesterday, as Nemanja Vidic held the trophy up, that did not look like an issue.

The champions by nine points from Chelsea in second place, the league table this morning does not reflect the closeness of the title race. Once United had disposed of Blackpool this turned into, among other things, a farewell for Edwin Van der Sar. When he made a save in the dying second, Patrice Evra knelt down next to him and genuflected. Van der Sar urged him to stand up and defend the corner.

Daniel Taylor's report in The Guardian concentrates almost wholly on Blackpool, which, I should point out, I'm not complaining too much about, the game was after all more important to them than us.  It also claims that:

At one point they [Blackpool] led 2-1 and were on the verge of becoming the first side to beat the champions at Old Trafford this season

Over 30 minutes left?  "On the verge?"  Yeah, right...

The Mail have a nice page with pictures of our celebrations and words from the players, including Rooney on the nine points we eventually won the league by:

'It sounds easy but it wasn't, nowhere near,' said Rooney. 'That Chelsea game was massive. If we had lost that game they would have been in the leading position. But we showed our true spirit to win after that, Chelsea's season was over.'

The way we outplayed Chelsea that day though, maybe suggests 9 points is about right...

The Mail also have a story on us inviting the 1968 European Cup winning side to the Champions League Final.  Nice gesture.

The Mirror have Sir Alex's quotes, including answering the rubbish side rubbish:

“I’m well aware we have our critics, people who think we lack flair and don’t play fantasy football, who believe we fall short of being a vintage side.

“We have the best home record in my time here and we’ve scored more goals.

“We beat Chelsea four times this season, recorded the highest-ever score in the Champions League semi-finals and didn’t concede an away goal in the competition.

“And, though I say it myself, some of our football at home was out of this world. So I reckon we must be doing something right.

Manchester Evening News have more player quotes, including this from Vidic on Barcelona:

“We have to come down after this excitement,” said Vidic. “We have to prepare as best as we can for Barcelona now. 

“We are celebrating this title win but everyone’s thinking about the next game. It is the biggest game of the year.

“We know what it feels like to go to the final and lose. It was one of the saddest moments of my career. I am sure all the players won’t forget that. We know we are facing a very, very good team and we have to be physically and psychologically ready. Against Barcelona you have to be intelligent.

“They have qualities but we will try to work on their weaknesses and to expose it and try to win the game.”