'You can forget Chelsea, that's for sure,' said Ferguson. 'You do not win league titles with performances like that. It is going to be very difficult for us now and second spot is the real priority for us now.'
Ferguson turned his attention to holding on to what we had before kick off: "We cannot afford to feel that we're in some kind of comfort zone. The battle for second place is still very much on."
Trying to excuse the performances Ferguson looked to familiar areas of concern:
'Ruud travelled to Romania last weekend and had another game on Wednesday, so they are coming thick and fast for him now,' said Ferguson. 'It is a hard schedule after such a long period out and he was looking very tired in the second half. To be honest, I am glad to get these internationals out of the way. The players are never the same when they come back to us and I just want to get them back in a Manchester United jersey again. I am going to pick a different team next week. There are one or two players like Louis Saha and Alan Smith who need a game and then we will see how things look for the semi-final.'