The instruction from the Manchester United press officer was clear. “We’re here to talk about tomorrow night’s game, so questions about the game please.”

And it was equally clear, from the very start of United’s pre-match press conference at Old Trafford this afternoon, that the message was going to fall on deaf ears. The first two questions were both about the so-called “Battle of Stamford Bridge” on Saturday afternoon, in particular what happened after the full-time whistle, when Patrice Evra and several of his team-mates were involved in a remarkable fracas with members of Chelsea’s groundstaff.

Sir Alex Ferguson could see the questions coming a mile off. “Did you not say something about that?” he asked the press officer, ignoring the questions and preferring to focus on tomorrow night’s Champions League semi-final second leg at home to Barcelona rather than sift through the wreckage of United’s acrimonious 2-1 defeat by Chelsea on Saturday.

He talked – as usual – about the need to put right United’s record of having won just two European Cups. He admitted that he has concerns over the fitness of Nemanja Vidic and Wayne Rooney, who both missed training this morning, but that he hopes both will play. He said that his controversial team selection at Chelsea – leaving Patrice Evra, Owen Hargreaves, Paul Scholes, Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez out of the starting line-up – was designed to address that and, significantly, that he still feels his team are on course to win the Premier League, regardless of their defeat at Stamford Bridge. He talked of the “marvellous chance” they have to reach the Champions League final in Moscow on May 21 following a 0-0 draw in the first leg at the Nou Camp.

It was when someone asked him whether his team were running out of steam, though, after three matches without a win and a series of unconvincing performances in recent weeks, that Ferguson really exploded into life.

“I'm not concerned the season is beginning to affect the team,” the United manager said. “I think we should be sitting here as champions of the league. I think decisions have gone against us, bad decisions have gone against us.

“When we started out in the league in August, it was to win the league. We signed up to play 38 league matches, and we are going to play 38 league matches. If it means we have to win the last two games to win the league, then so be it. Where we are now is, with two games left -- it doesn't matter if we've had 50 penalty kicks turned down, or 50 given to us, or terrible performances, or great performances -- we are sitting here now with two games left. A semi-final tomorrow, a home game on Saturday and a game against Wigan away. Disaster.”

There was laughter at Ferguson’s punchline, which was delivered with flurry at the end of what briefly threatened to be a remarkable rant, and it lightened his mood. As he left the Europa Suite a couple of minutes later, he finally agreed to take a question on what happened Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. “We are filing a report and it will be sent to the FA and we're very happy with that,” he said. “We are delighted with that. We hope the FA investigates it.”

As he stood up to leave the room, he paused. “There's just one question I want to put to Mr Custis [Neil Custis, the Sun reporter] if we're talking about Saturday,” he said. “Why were the lawnmowers on after the match to cut the grass. Are you not supposed to cut it before the game? There's a good question for you?”

A good question? Or a trivial diversion from what really happened? Either way, it is not something that Ferguson’s players are likely to dwell on as their thoughts turn to Barcelona.