ANDY GRAY COLUMN: United lose their way

MANCHESTER CITY were magnificent yesterday and they may just have put an end to United's hopes of challenging Liverpool and Arsenal for the title.

It's always dangerous to write off Fergie's side but it is the way they are losing games that is worrying me.

When was the last time you could honestly say United blew a team away with the kind of dominating display we used to see?

This is not the Manchester United we are used to. The arrogance all great teams possess appears to have been replaced with uncertainty.

That, combined with the fact that they are going to be without Nicky Butt and Roy Keane until after Christmas, means it is going to be a miracle if they manage to hang on to a fast-fading hope of taking the title back to Old Trafford.

I don't want to take anything at all away from Manchester City, who deserved their victory, but the one thing that struck me was that this was the type of game Roy Keane would have adored. He would have taken it by the scruff of the neck and shaken his team into action.

With Beckham also missing there was nobody there to do that yesterday and the result was a team without the kind of drive you need if you want to be genuine title contenders.

Unless they rediscover that killer touch it could all be over for Fergie by Christmas.

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