Sir Alex Ferguson said it was the players' fortitude and focus which won them the English Premier League title, when others "would have melted" after suffering heartbreak in the final day of last season, when Manchester City snatched the title on goal difference.
Robin Van Persie fired a hat-trick to give United the win that they needed to clinch their 20th league title and 13th since the inception of the English Premier League.
"The players' focus was fantastic this season," Ferguson said. "They didn't get themselves annoyed by what happened last season. A lot of teams -- most teams in the country -- would have melted. But not this bunch.
"They went on and did what Manchester United expects of them and raised the bar. You could go on and on and on about losing a title and we've had to do that in my time.
"I think our consistency for the last 20 years has been unbelievable. It's been a marvellous performance. We've got 84 points with four games left -- fantastic.
"The one thing I said to them at the start of the season was: 'Make sure you do not lose on goal difference again.'
"Last season was the first time we've ever lost on goal difference. We've always had a superior goal difference to all our opponents. That was the point where I realised that was the challenge: our goal difference must be better than theirs across the road."
Despite cantering to a ridiculously easy title win, many still don't consider this Manchester United team to be as good as some of the vintages of previous years.
"I think it's dead easy to say that," Ferguson said. "Nostalgia plays tricks on people's minds, without doubt. You do it yourself. How many times have you said: 'Ah, when I was a boy, things weren't the same?'
"Put it in context -- we've now got 84 points with four games left and we've never done that. We've won most of our games, drawn three, lost four and the goal (Van Persie's second)tonight... it doesn't matter where you place that in terms of all the great goals we've scored, from David Beckham, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Eric Cantona...
"That pedestal is there, the players have joined that pedestal. We've got some young, exciting players -- you've seen how (David) De Gea's improved over the season into an outstanding goalkeeper, young Rafa (Rafael), you saw (Phil) Jones tonight... arguably the way he's looking, he could be our best ever player."
