Sir Alex Ferguson is fond of noting how Manchester United like to do things the hard way, like a father chuckling at his offspring's propensity for mischief. But he won't be laughing today. After losing two Premier League games in a row for the first time in 47 months, Manchester United's lead at the top of the table could be down to one point if Liverpool beat Aston Villa tomorrow. They still have a game in hand, but that will be of little comfort after they were beaten 2-0 at Fulham and had Paul Scholes and Wayne Rooney sent off to make it three red cards in two games. At the moment it's only a drama, but it could soon be a fully fledged crisis.
There are strong echoes of March 1994, when a previously untouchable United suddenly fell apart: they had four players sent off in five games, were almost reeled in by Blackburn and kept ABUs in schadenfreude for weeks. That season ended happily, with United picking up their first Double, but it was uncomfortably tight: had Mark Hughes not scored a remarkable equaliser in the last minute of extra-time in the FA Cup semi-final against Oldham, it is entirely feasible that United would have won nothing.
This season, of course, they are trying to win five trophies. The consequence of that has been a bloated fixture list - today was United's 51st game of a congested season, as against Chelsea's 45 and Liverpool's 44 - and even though Ferguson says this is the best squad he has ever had, that may be taking its toll.
Ferguson is too experienced to be put off by consecutive defeats - that happens - but the pitiful manner of their first-half performance today will concern him. Certain players, particularly Patrice Evra, look shattered mentally and physically. Have United shot their bolt? Are they bottling it? Or did they simply lose today because Scholes committed an act of monumental stupidity?
