MANCHESTER UNITED will become Premiership champions if Chelsea fail to beat Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium this afternoon. Three days after the colossal disappointment of their elimination from the Champions League, United recovered sufficient self-belief and form to beat Manchester City 1-0 at Eastlands, a result which takes them eight points clear of Chelsea, who have three matches to play, but a vastly inferior goal difference.

Sir Alex Ferguson joined his players on the pitch at the final whistle, clearly believing the race is over bar the shouting, but said that, as is his custom in such circumstances, he would not be watching Chelsea play Arsenal on television today. Cristiano Ronaldo was the matchwinner yesterday, a 33rd-minute penalty providing his 17th goal in the Premiership and his 23rd in all competitions.

Ronaldo was not United’s only hero. With 10 minutes remaining, Wes Brown brought down Michael Ball and City had a penalty of their own. The red half of Manchester held its breath as Darius Vassell stepped up and struck it straight and too close to Edwin van der Sar, who improvised a vital save with his legs.

Ferguson was not inclined to tempt fate last night, leaving it to the City manager, Stuart Pearce, to articulate the universal belief in saying: “The result here finishes the title race. United will be worthy champions; they are a very good team. So are Chelsea, of course, but whoever finishes on top of the league after 38 games deserves to.”

Praising his players for their recovery after that 3-0 drubbing in Milan last Wednesday, Ferguson said: “What you saw today is human courage. After the result in midweek, they showed fantastic courage and just got on with it. You didn’t see the best of Manchester United because there was a lot of tiredness out there, but they did the job.”

Diplomatically, Ferguson declined to discuss a second-minute incident which should have brought Ball a straight red card. With Ronaldo flat on his back and helpless, the City left-back stamped on his midriff and escaped banishment only because the referee Rob Styles and his assistants missed the incident.

Elsewhere, Carlos Tevez stoked the controversy surrounding his signing by West Ham and the club’s subsequent punishment by scoring two goals in the Hammers’ 3-1 victory over Bolton. The win moved the London club out of the relegation zone and three points above Wigan, who lost 1-0 at home to Middlesbrough and are one of the clubs that have threatened to sue the Premier League over its failure to deduct points from West Ham.

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