‘United's fans will want to know how Eyal Berkovic was allowed to run the show in midfield - a job they must be growing ever sceptical about Juan Veron performing consistently.
The concern for Fergie and United's fans is that despite quickly getting back into the encounter with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer equalising Anelka's opener they then failed to go on and squeeze the life out of City.
Not so long ago United would have terrorised the Blues in their brief purple patch and would have put the game out of reach.
Not anymore. There was precious little forward response and that just shredded the nerves of the rearguard even more.
I doubt if anyone inside Old Trafford would dare put up the excuse that there was no Roy Keane, Nicky Butt and David Beckham because I doubt it would wash with a dispirited support.
Yes, that trio would have probably between them nailed Berkovic down but United's XI still had enough class and experience to have coped with the problem themselves.
United have got a lot of evidence to provide before the fast-growing band of sceptics are convinced days like this are not going to become more and more regular.’