Ferguson to launch summer inquisition

WHEN Alex Ferguson starts to work out where it all went wrong for United this season, it will be of immense frustration that the seeds of his side's Premiership demise were not planted by anything that happened on the field of play.

In the deeper recesses of Ferguson's mind, but certainly not in public, the Scot will begrudgingly admit that Arsenal performed consistently at a higher level than United over the past nine months.

Yet that situation was no different to the one that existed last term, when United's greater strength of character saw them land an eighth Premier League title at the Gunners' expense.