Somehow it felt appropriate: an own goal of a season decided by own goals. For Manchester United it even finished at the wrong time of day for them to receive due recognition from their fans; for everyone else it finished at the wrong time of year - Easter, five matches and six weeks before the final day. There will be no title climax, only a broad sense of disappointment and disapproval. It's no champagne moment.

For United and Alex Ferguson that is one of several frustrations. Ferguson's historic third consecutive title, United's seventh in the nine seasons of the Premiership, has been labelled cut-price even before it hit the shelves. That is not Ferguson's fault. The cause of the under-valuation of this particular Premiership trophy lies at Highbury, Elland Road, Anfield and Stamford Bridge. Much as last season.

The idea that United are somehow culpable as well because, as Ferguson has acknowledged, they have not been at their best for much of the season, is a false argument. Of course it would have been great had United thrilled nations with fresh invention, but in England, as in any league, they have only to overcome what is put before them. If that is an unready Liverpool challenge, an unsteady Leeds one, a limp Arsenal effort and a whole lot of not much else, then that is what United have to defeat. That they did.

Yet it says much about this Old Trafford regime that when the guilt lies elsewhere for the uncompetitive nature of the Premiership, it is from United that the sound of contrition is the loudest. No one embodies self-reproach more than the captain, Roy Keane, and he has been far from reticent in letting his feelings be known about his personal sense of expectation. Days before winning a title he was talking about heads rolling.

Keane's penitence has a European core, and it is spreading to some of his colleagues. Speaking on the eve of Saturday's game with Coventry City, Jaap Stam said this about United's season: "We still value winning the championship enormously, but there is no doubt a failure to progress to the semi-finals of the Champions' League would leave us feeling we had fallen short of our expectations for another year."

Winning the league is falling short. The sin of pride has no role in this team with a Protestant work ethic. Would that that characteristic were visible at every other club in England's Premiership. Things might change then.

Granted, David O'Leary and Arsene Wenger have voiced their shame at the shape of the season. O'Leary called it "disgraceful" just a fortnight ago - while neatly passing the parcel of blame to Wenger and Gerard Houllier - and Wenger stated his "embarrassment" about the state of affairs two days prior to travelling to Old Trafford to lose 6-1 at the end of February.

But actions speak louder than words. That is why there was such neutral enthusiasm about the performance Leeds delivered at Anfield last Friday morning. Ferguson had called Leeds the emerging team as long ago as the preseason before last, and on Friday at Anfield the collective determination and individual class of O'Leary's side suggested that the promise is not far short of implementation.

That Leeds have thrived in a European environment considerably more demanding than their natural habitat is just one of the paradoxes of a puzzling season. Leeds could well win the European Cup from here, yet their frustration, as opposed to Manchester United's, would be domestic. And we're talking strictly football.

At Highbury, there has been equivalent confusion. When Arsenal flashed past the Italian champions, Lazio, managed by Sven Goran Eriksson, last September, theirs was a display that matched Leeds' at Anfield in terms of the admiration it engendered. Freddie Ljungberg looked like he could be Arsenal's answer to Paul Scholes or Lee Bowyer.

Arsenal even defeated Manchester United four days later courtesy of Thierry Henry's spectacular strike - Liverpool are the only other United victors - but in places like Goodison Park and The Valley Arsenal's self-belief apparently unravelled. In the space of three weeks in November Arsenal drew at home with Derby County and lost at Everton and Leeds. One point from nine. United, who were hardly flying at the time - witness the Dynamo Kiev scare - won at Highfield Road and Maine Road and beat Middlesbrough at home. Nine points from nine.

"Losing the title today doesn't hurt me so much now," said Wenger after the dismal Middlesbrough result on Saturday, "because we had already accepted that it was over." (Imagine Roy Keane saying that). "What hurt me most," Wenger continued, "was in November when we were nearly level with United but slipped up to some bad defeats."

It is difficult not to think that that passive demeanour has played a part in Arsenal's downfall. If one accepts Pat Rice's argument that Highbury's first team is as good and perhaps better than Old Trafford's first team, but that their second team is not, then the debate is not about money or stadium size, it is about delivery and it is about attitude.

There is no doubt that a player such as Patrick Vieira would walk into the United team, but the fact that Vieira was hounded into red cards in the opening two matches of the season against Sunderland and Liverpool was indicative of the opposition approach towards Arsenal: they were not intimidated. By comparison, there has been no such harassment of Keane. It is Keane, United's lifeforce and on his way to a second Player of the Year award, who dominates and sets the physical and mental agenda.

It is worth remembering that in the sole Premiership campaign in which United have not won or were teeth-skin close, Arsenal's Double season, Keane was missing through injury.

Yet there was a photograph in a recent Liverpool programme which showed a possible development on that front. It showed Steven Gerrard leaping high above Keane to win a heading confrontation, and for Liverpool's sake, and for the league, it is to be hoped Gerrard can progress from a fine start. His beauty against Fabien Barthez at Anfield a fortnight ago is a contender for goal of the season.

Overall, though, for a club with such vast expenditure, Liverpool have dallied in the league, and while Houllier can point to two Cup finals and a European semi against Barcelona, it is Premiership headway that matters most. In the definitive month of November, Liverpool lost at Elland Road, White Hart Lane and St James' Park. That left them fifth and that is where they could finish.

It might not even be that high. Chelsea are coming again, a run of four wins in five games has lifted them into the top six. Yet no club in England sums up this season's Premiership better than vain, inefficient, big-time Chelsea. Sacking a manager, any manager, in September, is a sign of instability and hesitancy rather than one of power and certainty.

Gianluca Vialli was dismissed, despite being the club's most successful manager in decades, because he had upset some of the senior players. That is the time when a manager should be backed. Thereafter, the club with the largest wage bill in the country was always going to be in transition.

How good is Vialli's replacement? We shall find out more next season about Claudio Ranieri, but the rumours suggesting that Giovanni van Bronckhorst will be arriving from Ibrox is a good sign.

As for the rest, only Ipswich Town, Charlton Athletic and Sunderland deserve honourable mentions. For his construction, organisation and maintenance of Ipswich, George Burley should receive the Manager of the Year award. Similarly, Alan Curbishley has overseen Charlton's quiet rise diligently and in Scott Parker has one of the most advanced young talents in the Premiership. Sunderland may grab less than they reached for, but at least they have strained.

Sunderland have pulled themselves out of that Ronan Rafferty comfort zone at least, to the extent that no European football will be regarded as failure; but important clubs such as Aston Villa and Tottenham Hotspur (last top six finish, 1989-90) remain marooned there. There needs to be more activity in that compartment, and Fulham and Blackburn Rovers may stir it up there. Fulham are one of the few who have taken Manchester United on.

That is for next time, though. Ultimately this season has merely offered confirmation of what we knew already: that the Premiership has three or four leagues within it and that Manchester United are in one of their own. There is no shock there. It's just that known truths can still wound.