BEFORE the season started, Sir Alex Ferguson was asked to assess Manchester United’s rivals in the Premier League. He was generous about Arsenal and the work Arsène Wenger did with young players. He was respectful towards Chelsea, the experience of their manager and squad. He talked of clubs outside the so-called Big Four, noting how impressed he was with Aston Villa and Everton, the potential of Tottenham. Liverpool? He had little to say.

That seemed odd until the thought occurred that maybe it was a ploy. Ferguson plans his press utterances as if on a tactics board, after all. Downplaying Liverpool was something he had done before and he has done it since.

Has the old master of mind games been trying to annoy Anfield through indifference? Only he knows, but one thing is now clear. The United manager has lodged himself, just above the goatee beard, firmly up Rafael Benitez’s nose. Benitez is known for playing a straight bat in press conferences but devoted his most recent Friday briefing to a sustained and premeditated denunciation of “Meester! Fer-goo-son!” It was a white-lipped, saucer-eyed rant from the “and another thing” school popularised by Kevin Keegan. Ferguson, who declined to react publicly, probably watched the scene repeated on Sky Sports News all evening, sitting on his sofa with a grin, fingers curled around a glass of Rioja.

Keegan’s explosion against Ferguson, when he said he would “love it, love it” if his Newcastle team pipped United to the title in 1996, is held to have contributed towards the opposite outcome. Wenger spent years sparring verbally with Ferguson and appeared to win many of the individual rounds. It did become clear, though, that Ferguson was getting under Wenger’s skin more than Wenger was getting under his, and, with United reestablished above Arsenal in the Premier League pecking order, a truce was called.

Ferguson claims a new victim

Rafa Benitez has fallen for his arch-rival’s tricks: as the United manager knows, calm heads win league championships

• Rafael Benitez's rant at Manchester United in full

BACKGROUND

• Ferguson 'above law', claims angry Benitez

• Rivals get personal in title race

• Ferguson master of the mind games

Multimedia

• How today's Premiership action unfolded

Related Links

• Benitez's rant at Manchester United in full

It is not only the precedents that make Benitez’s attack appear risky. Do a team with a narrow lead at the top of the table while chasing their first title in 19 years need concocted distractions? Only if the answer is “yes” was Benitez’s action logical - and perhaps he conceived his tirade to deflect attention from Steven Gerrard.

Any other justification for such headline-spawning invective is dubious, but Benitez has something of a compulsion for getting political when he speaks to journalists. He has got himself into trouble by airing grievances about Liverpool’s American owners, Tom Hicks and George Gillett, and Rick Parry, the club’s chief executive. When managing in Spain he had several famous outbursts. The most celebrated was his acid-tongued quip about Jesus Garcia Pitarch, his director of football at Valencia, who signed a winger, Fabian Canobbio, he did not rate. “Well, I asked for a sofa and they’ve bought me a standard lamp,” Benitez said.

In 2004, when Real Madrid equalised against Valencia with a 93rd-minute penalty after the fourth official had signalled one minute of stoppage time, he said: “For some people we are too strong a rival and it would obviously be wrong for us to win the league. I saw the fourth official’s board clearly. Without the extra minutes they would not have blown for a penalty. In any 100 other matches, they wouldn’t have awarded that penalty. At the Bernabeu you have to win twice just to get half a result.”

In 2003 he called one of his club’s directors, Manuel Llorente, “a man who has no friends, hangs around in the shadows waiting to stab you in the back”. As a two-time La Liga champion, Benitez could say he played his press games and came out top. If he wins the Premier League, “Rafa’s Rant” will be celebrated. Should Liverpool fall short, it will be used to condemn Benitez.

Some of his speech about “Fer-goo-son!” was humorously acerbic (“Scolari needs to use zonal marking against the staff of United because they are always man to man with the referees”) and had it been given by Jose Mourinho, in his sarcastic, smarty-pants way, it might have hit the mark. The danger is that Benitez, like Keegan, may have come across as angry and pressured.

Gerard Houllier said the most important 30 minutes of a manager’s week was his press conference, because it was watched, listened to and read by supporters, directors and players. A manager could use it to set a tone that resonated throughout his club.

Do Liverpool need to be angry and pressured? Ferguson, who is unlikely to make any big public response to Benitez’s accusations, knows calm heads win league championships.

BAITED BY FERGIE
Liverpool’s manager is only the latest in a line of rivals to clash with Sir Alex Ferguson

July 2008 As Luiz Felipe Scolari took over at Chelsea, Ferguson asked whether the squad was too old to win the league. ‘I don’t know how far that team has got to go. Maybe they’ve plateaued.’ Chelsea have not dominated as many expected and if they lose today, United will be only a point behind them with two games in hand

April 2003 Ferguson scoffed at Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger’s talk of his side going unbeaten through the season, saying: ‘It might come back to haunt them.’ It did. Arsenal’s challenge collapsed and United won the title. The next season, though, Wenger’s Gunners fulfilled his prediction

May 1996 Ferguson made a series of jibes intended to ensure other teams would be ‘up’ for matches against title rivals Newcastle. He hit the jackpot when Kevin Keegan, the Newcastle manager, delivered his infamous ‘I’d love it’ rant live on television. Their challenge faded and United won the league

BEST OF THE BLOGS

No idea what this will achieve. Bit like Keegan’s rant. Maybe this is what Ferguson wants. His comments have riled Rafa. Time will tell, I suppose. JonnyCigarette, Red and White Kop

When my beloved Arsenal were championship challengers, whenever Wenger reacted furiously to Ferguson I pretty much knew the game was up. Little Dutch, football365.com

Was it a Keegan moment or was it Rafa marking out what’s wrong? Tough one to call but I for one would have preferred Rafa to do his talking in getting results. Stevobornred, lfconline

Benitez is right to do this. Now it has to be seen whether other managers support him. Benedict Spence, Sky Sports forum

Totally agree with the Spanish waiter but I think this shows the pressure he’s really under and could in the bigger picture cost Liverpool more ... ie: the title! Old Grey Yid, planetspurs