Class differences getting bigger

There was nothing between them over the past eight months, so we shouldn't be too surprised that the championship battle involving Manchester United and Arsenal ended in the way that it did yesterday.

United, as expected, capitalised on the advantage they held going into the final day of the season, but both teams won their games comfortably and showed once again why they've become so established as the teams to beat in the Premiership at the moment.

For those looking on from the sidelines, the early goal for Tottenham added a bit of spice to the afternoon's proceedings, but even after it was scored the visitors gave little indication at Old Trafford that they had what it takes to beat Alex Ferguson's side on their patch.

As they gradually got going, United simply overwhelmed the London club and it was fitting that David Beckham, one of the real heroes of the season, got the equaliser for the home team.

He was one of several players in the United team that stood out yesterday, with Roy Keane also figuring prominently in the list.

But as ever the real strength shown by the newly restored champions was their ability to play for each other and the depth they show every time the manager decides to fiddle about with his line-up.

Ferguson very rarely gets it wrong these days and most of the substitutions he makes are very positive in that he tends to make changes because he wants his side to go on and win games.

Yesterday provided another example of that, with Andy Cole coming in and finishing the job for his team. Part one of the treble is now safely in the bag, part two should come next weekend, and the final part . . . well, that's just going to come down to who plays the better football on the night in Barcelona, but I wouldn't bet against them.

As for Arsenal, they looked good again yesterday and while you have to feel sorry for players when they play so well together and still win nothing, the suspicion is that this season will prove to be no more than a minor blip in what promises to be a very good period for the club.

At the moment the main difference between United and Arsenal is probably that the London club's best 11 is pretty obvious, while you could suffer far more severe bouts of indecision picking from the 20 or so best players up at Old Trafford.

Arsene Wenger knows that he has to broaden his options and raise the standard of the players he has on the bench, but he will know, too, that he doesn't need to do too much and I wouldn't expect him to go wild with a chequebook over the close season.

Nor will Chelsea, the only other team who have consistently looked like they can compete at the very top of the Premiership over the course of the season as a whole. If Arsenal have had occasional problems with scoring compared with United, then Gianluca Vialli's side lag further behind and they simply must get in somebody who is capable of scoring regularly if they are to improve on what they have achieved over the past couple of years.

After that, the sad fact is there is little enough to get excited about. Leeds have shown considerable promise this season and hopefully they can build on that and move closer to the top three next year, but otherwise the gulf only shows signs of widening. Liverpool, Aston Villa and the like have an enormous amount of progress to make before they can once again consider themselves serious contenders.

If United, Arsenal and Chelsea can do well in the Champions League next season, then that gap may become an even greater problem for the game in England for the revenue that success in Europe generates, if wisely spent, should allow them to distance themselves further from the pack.

Should that happen then we may come to look back at this season with a hint of sadness. Once again it has been exciting because once again the title race went all the way to the death, but look beyond the leaders and the league is starting to look a little threadbare.

If the present trend continues, Arsenal, United and, perhaps, Chelsea doing battle until May next season begins to have a somewhat tedious ring to it. And then the season after that?

It might all sound a bit gloomy on the day after an entertaining finish to the championship, but given the way the top two strolled their games against what have traditionally been other "big" clubs, the warning bells are ringing now louder than ever.

(In an interview with Emmet Malone)