United are champions

Manchester United were tonight crowned Barclays Premiership champions for a record ninth time.

United have a seven-point lead over second-placed Chelsea with two games remaining after they beat Manchester City 1-0 yesterday and Jose Mourinho’s side could only draw 1-1 at Arsenal today.

It means Alex Ferguson can take his team to Stamford Bridge on Wednesday night having already reclaimed the title from Chelsea, who had won it for the last two seasons.

There were few chances at the Emirates Stadium today before Chelsea defender Khalid Boulahrouz was shown a red card for hauling down Julio Baptista on 42 minutes and Gilberto converted the resulting penalty.

Michael Essien’s close-range header with 20 minutes left gave the Blues brief hope – but a draw was not enough and United were champions again for the first time since 2003.