48 hours: Ferguson's side next best nag in a one-horse race

The most comforting sight from the English football premiership over the weekend was also its most familiar. Sir Alex Ferguson, who appears to have stopped ageing, looked almost relaxed as his Manchester United battled to a 1-0 win over Tottenham Hotspur.

United are four from four in the new season - and the premiership is all the better for it.

Why does the premiership mean so much to so many people around the world? Suffice here to simply say that it does. Long may it continue.

The joy of it all however was, or is, in danger of diminishing should Chelsea run away with the title again.

Such is their dominance that it is possible they will have the title virtually wrapped up, with a bow, by Christmas.

This is not what the greatest sports competition on the planet needs.

Despite an early hiccup against Middlesbrough, Chelsea will remain the raging favourites. If the premiership is to avoid becoming another one horse race however, the next best nag still has to be Ferguson's United despite the rumblings about his management coming out of Manchester.

The most encouraging signs from yesterday's match at Old Trafford, watched by a crowd of 75,000, were the tricky runs and long-range shots from Cristiano Ronaldo, the Portuguese prodigy who risked the wrath of his adopted home through his infamous intervention during Wayne Rooney's dismissal at the World Cup.

United desperately need Rooney and Ronaldo to launch a challenge on Chelsea, and the World Cup spat threatened that. Thankfully, the dire predictions that Ronaldo would be forced out have proved unfounded.

Not that this has eliminated the doubts which have circled Ferguson in the latter years of a glittering and extraordinary career which has brought 17 trophies to the world's most famous football club.

The claims include that Ferguson is failing in the transfer market, and that United are prone to playing boring football. Given United's history, of George Best, Eric Cantona et al, the second claim is almost the most damaging.

Three fans were seen at the United training ground last week, waving a bedsheet with the words "Fergie Out" scrawled on it.

Three people do not make a crowd in this case, whereas 75,000 definitely do. Four wins from four have eased the pressure on the 64-year-old Sir Alex. What would the premiership be like without this most fascinating of characters?

Even his blasting of players, his ability to get members of his own team offside, are legendary.

One former player, Peter Barnes, was so eager to avoid a Ferguson tongue-lashing that he submerged himself in a swimming pool as the manager sought him out.

Ferguson's hold on the city of Manchester was so complete in the early days that players could not misbehave without one of Fergie's spies around town ringing the boss with a full report.

This was at a time when Ferguson could still build his side largely from within, rather than via the big-money transfer market. In the old days, Ferguson would have created a Michael Carrick. Now he has to break the bank to buy one.

The brilliant 2002 Michael Crick biography of Ferguson, for which more than 200 people were interviewed, even had to make do without the local daily newspaper files because the paper feared Ferguson's reaction should they be linked to any negative aspects about his career.

He may not be holding the same sort of grip any more because, with pressure growing on him, Ferguson has recently lashed out at the Manchester Evening News, claiming they are running a campaign against his transfer-market performance.

And yes, he lacks grace and can be a self-interested bore, like a few of his managerial comrades. But from this distance though, Ferguson's United still look the one team capable of halting Chelsea's almost inevitable title run, and for that we must thank him.

There may be other challengers to Jose Mourinho's supersquad, but every time a team like Everton knocks off Liverpool, as they did in the latest Merseyside duel, you feel that another genuine challenger is already falling by the wayside.

It is very likely that the premiership now needs Sir Alex as much as Manchester United have done over the years. He alone appears to have the mana, skill and spending power to at least make it a two-horse race.

As hard as you try, it's difficult to find another challenger to Chelsea over the long haul.

For a lesson on the importance of a manager, and that simply having money to throw around doesn't necessarily leave you in footballing credit, try United's latest opponents Spurs. They've won a few FA Cups, but in real terms they've won sweet FA.

For now, Ferguson remains the key for United, and already he has seen off one of the greatest dangers to his team, the potential Rooney-Ronaldo rift.

It wasn't the greatest of Manchester and Tottenham matches and the many Spurs fans around the world will be contemplating another season of despair, with the words "here we go again" ringing in their heads. They would kill for the sort of mis-management claims that Ferguson's opponents are slinging his way.

Small comfort for Spurs, but in the all-important cause of setting up a decent title race, the neutrals will say that the right team won at Old Trafford over the weekend.

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What is to be done about US Open tennis champion Maria Sharapova? I tried to watch her progress to the title at Flushing Meadows but even a minute of listening to that yelling which accompanies every shot is a minute too much.

"Who the hell is that?" my wife asked, as I settled down to watch Sharapova in action.

"Does she do that on every shot?"

Tennis needs to do something about its Scream Queen, although as to what, I'm not sure.