Is this man’s class of 2012 better than we thought?

There are times when perception and reality are different things.

Alex Ferguson would argue that that’s the case in this season’s title race. Critics and pundits say Manchester United are playing poorly and lack the quality and strength in depth of previous sides. There’s a ‘but’ though. A big one. Domestically United have continued to win games with relentless consistency.

Last season the same criticism was levelled at United yet they won a record 19th league championship and reached a third Champions League final in four years. However that match ended in humiliation as Barcelona took United apart in a one-sided final at Wembley. This season has seen further embarrassment on the European stage as United crashed out of the Champions League before Christmas before bowing out of Europe altogether after a chastening Europa League defeat to Athletic Bilbao earlier this month.

Domestically, there have been low points too. In October noisy neighbours Manchester City administered a 6-1 thrashing at Old Trafford. It seemed a seminal moment but, while failing to impress many, United have clawed their way back into the title race and can open up a three-point advantage at the top should they beat Fulham at Fulham at Old Trafford tonight.

It’s a remarkable achievement for an unrated team and guiding this team to title glory would be viewed by many as one of Ferguson’s greatest accomplishments. But doubts and questions still remain. Are the critics right? Is the class of 2012 less able than previous teams?

In January, Match Of The Day pundit Alan Hansen argued just that, claiming: ‘‘By their own standards, United have been woeful for the past 18 months. I can’t recall Sir Alex Ferguson’s team being so bad for two successive seasons.’’

Ferguson hit back, comparing Hansen’s comments to his infamous ‘you’ll win nothing with kids’ claim at the start of the 1995/1996 season and claiming the former Liverpool defender had ‘‘dug himself a grave’’ with his remarks.

Hansen later attempted to clarify his comments, claiming he was referring specifically to their away form.

However the fact Ferguson opted to respond to Hansen’s outburst and a similar attack from Roy Keane before Christmas was in itself interesting and suggested the United boss is frustrated by the criticism that has been levelled at his side.

So who’s right? United’s European travails this season does suggest they’re on the slide, while their away form domestically last season was, certainly by the standards of a title winning team, abject. United won just five times on the road in the Premier League, a return Wayne Rooney recently described as “a disaster”.

This season though Ferguson’s men have fared significantly better, winning 11 of their 15 Premier League games on the road and losing only once, at Newcastle as the start of January.

In contrast, City have looked vulnerable away from home, losing on four occasions, to Chelsea, Sunderland, Everton and Swansea respectively.

Ironically, having won the title in spite of their away form last season, it is United’s results on the road that kept them in the hunt to retain the title.

In total, United have accumulated 70 points from their first 29 games. Not bad for a poor team, a side that has been without captain Nemanja Vidic for much of the season.

Indeed, it’s interesting to note that only once in the Premier League era have United won more points after 29 games than they have this season. That was in the 2006/2007 season when they had already assembled 72 points en route to winning their first championship in four seasons.

To put United’s current points tally into context, the team viewed by many as their greatest, the 1998/1999 treble winning team had 60 points at this stage of the season, 10 points viewer than the current team.

Ferguson himself has a particularly high regard for the 1993/94 team that won United’s first domestic double. That team included players of the calibre of Roy Keane, Eric Cantona, Paul Ince, Andrei Kanchelskis and a young Ryan Giggs but points-wise, they too fall short of the current side, winning 68 points, two fewer than the class of 2012.

Interestingly, the United side with the fewest points after 29 games was the side that won the inaugural Premier League in 1992/1993. They had just 54 points, 16 shy of this season’s team.

Of course a mere points comparison — particularly one made when a quarter of the Premier League campaign remains — does not prove that this is a vintage United team.

For instance, the treble winning side’s final points tally of 79 doesn’t in itself look hugely impressive but 1998/1999 was one of the few seasons where there was a genuine three-horse race. Arsenal picked up 78 points while Chelsea finished with 75 and the fact that the title participants took points off each other helped bring the overall tally down.

That being said, what the points tally until now does show is, in the league at least, this is a team capable of churning out wins with a consistency that few United teams of the Premier League era can match. In most seasons a points tally of 70 after 29 games would leave a team in a commanding lead in the championship.

This isn’t most seasons though, as the league is more stretched than usual at both ends. People always tally of 40 points being the target to stay up but this year a tally in the low to mid 30s may well prove sufficient to secure survival. At the other end of the table the two Manchester clubs have set a searing, relentless pace. Conceivably one of those teams could finish with over 90 points yet fail to win the title.

United have the kinder run-in, the experience and crucially the greatest momentum as the season hurtles towards its conclusion.

Should they claim a 20th championship even their biggest critics will have to concede that this team might not be all that ordinary after all.

Fergie may, yet again, have the last laugh.