Admiring how Fergie played his cards

FIRST we were The Crap Invincibles; then the Not-So-Crap Vincibles; now we’re finally The Really Quite Good, Actually, Champions. Saturday will determine if that appellation is to stick, or replaced by something loftier.

The basic statistics of just the Premier League season, however, tell a simple tale. Virtually flawless home results — if not necessarily performances — counteracted sometimes shockingly inept away day displays, many of which nonetheless saw us getting away with it.

In the Good Old Days of two-pointers, the results tally would have been hailed as wonderful, keeping to the Busby maxim of “win at home, draw away, and you will be champions”. Not anymore: now it’s deemed 32 out of 57 points ‘lost’. Such is progress.