Sir Alex Ferguson had the smile of a champion again last night after Chelsea presented the Barclays Premiership title to Manchester United with two games to spare and, perhaps to the consternation of José Mourinho, the 65-year-old was adamant that his ninth championship success will not be his last.

On a dramatic day in the Premiership, with Glenn Roeder losing his job as manager of Newcastle United last night, United were confirmed as champions for the first time since 2003 thanks to Chelsea’s 1-1 draw away to Arsenal. Chelsea will form a guard of honour when United visit Stamford Bridge on Wednesday, but, despite rumours that Ferguson may be tempted to retire after a ninth title in 15 seasons, the United manager is already plotting number ten.

“It’s easy to retire,” Ferguson said. “It’s easy to make a quick decision. I did that a few years ago and probably regretted it within days. But now I feel invigorated by the young players at this club and I feel invigorated by people like Ryan Giggs, Gary Neville and Paul Scholes turning out every week for me.

“I don’t know how long I’m going to last for, but I’m enjoying it and I’m going to keep going until I stop enjoying it.”

Asked whether it was his most satisfying title triumph, given the difficulties in overcoming opponents with the resources of Mourinho’s Chelsea, Ferguson said: “I think they’re all good, but we had a big job to do to catch them.”

He suggested that much of the groundwork for this season’s challenge was done in the previous 12 months, with the difficult decisions to release players such as Roy Keane and Ruud van Nistelrooy.

“I felt this was a more harmonious group of players,” he said. “At times as a manager you have to make terrible decisions. Lads who were fantastic players for us had to move on. Age catches up with them sometimes. You have to have patience and courage to take that through.”

Mourinho offered his congratulations to United but said that it “does not matter” whether or not Ferguson’s side were worthy champions. “My players are heroes,” he said. “Against everything this season, absolutely everything, I think they have done brilliantly. I think today was a game to remember. Somebody who wants to succeed in this dressing-room needs to watch this game a couple of times to understand why somebody has success in this group and why other people have no success.”

His comments were perceived as a snipe at Andriy Shevchenko and Michael Ballack, the expensive summer imports whose contributions have been fitful during the campaign and were missing through injury in the final weeks. Of the guard of honour for Ferguson’s champions on Wednesday, Mourinho said: “They did it for us [in 2005], so we have to do the same.”

United and Everton have been cleared by the FA Premier League after an investigation into their “arrangement” over Tim Howard, the United States goalkeeper, who was prevented from playing against Ferguson’s team last weekend.

Howard, initially on a season-long from Old Trafford, completed a permanent £3 million move to Everton on February 14 and should have been permitted to play against United at Goodison Park, but did not appear because of an informal verbal agreement between the respective managers. The Premier League declared itself “satisfied . . . that there were no agreements that breached any of our rules.”