Kevin Mitchell in The Observer:
When Manchester United faltered in their chase for the championship towards the end of last season, Alex Ferguson called it 'a mere blip'. Six games into the new season, the blip has turned into an unwelcome guest and we are left to wonder if the most dominant team in English football over the past decade are coming to the end of their wondrous run.The evidence is compelling on several fronts. For a start, the perception is in place that they are not half the team they were and, in football, that matters more than it should. Indeed, some sides will now relish going to their citadel to tweak the nose of a side who ruled so completely for so long.
Indisputably, United's aura has gone. Where once teams went to Old Trafford in trepidation, nobody is scared of them now. They are the Mike Tyson of football. When a team with such depth as United start to lose regularly at home, there is obviously something wrong.
It will have occurred to Ferguson more than once this season that maybe he should not have extended his contract by a year. It would have been better, he might conclude on days like yesterday and nights like last Wednesday, had he decided to spend more time with his horses.
If not, he will be at odds with quite a few people inside and outside Old Trafford who are thinking exactly that on his behalf. Ferguson loves a fight. It feeds his hairshirt tendencies. And this farewell struggle is tailor-made for a man used to proving people wrong. It is easy to forget how close he came to being sacked before he turned around United's fortunes and made them into one of the best teams in the world.
But all dynasties die. In life, in sport, there is no such thing as eternal dominance. The West Indies team that terrorised international cricket in the 1980s and 1990s were never the same after the likes of Viv Richards and Clive Lloyd retired and have been reduced to a sorry state.
Against that sort of firepower in Europe, United are vulnerable. Towards the end of his career, Evel Knievel attempted one of his crazier stunts - trying to clear a tankful of sharks on his Harley Davidson - and he fell short, his reputation and ratings nosediving with him. To borrow the website phrase, which, after that spectacular failure, has come to define the point of irrevocable decline: have Manchester United 'jumped the shark'?
By Ferguson's own maths, anyone hoping to win the Premiership cannot afford to lose six matches in a season. In the first month, United have lost two. The sense of anxiety will deepen with each reverse, of which there will surely be more.
It will be Ferguson's biggest triumph if he can arrest his team's freefall. It would bring his wonderful career to a fitting climax. And whatever the petty jealousies that infect football, few would begrudge him that. It is just that, match by match, it seems less likely. United were potless last season and might be again this winter. And, after he has gone, when the party is over and the sun is coming up harshly over Manchester, the club will stare reality in the face and ask themselves the old George Best question: where did it all go wrong?