'Over the whole season, if you look at the FA Cup and the Premier League, then we were certainly the best team in England. But in the championship, United found their form at the right moment and had a consistent run recently.'
Through gritted teeth Wenger did give United some credit for the unbeaten league run since Christmas:
'United have won the championship and we can just congratulate them and say they were the best in the Premiership this season. I don't think they have been flying though. They were consistent and have found a consistent defence. The last two games were quite easy and we had difficult games against Bolton and Leeds.’
Arsenal aren’t quite a one man team but what must the rest of the team think when the manager makes the following comment with just two players missing:
'When we were put out of the Champions League, we lost some of our momentum and then we were without Patrick Vieira and Sol Campbell. If you miss half of the army, then it's difficult.'
With eight players under the surgeon’s knife before Christmas surely it was United who could lay claim to missing ‘half the army’.