Manchester United captain Roy Keane had no complaints after Saturday's FA Cup defeat, concentrating on his side's failure to take their chances. "We played quite well, created lots of chances, but the hardest part of football is putting the ball in the back of the net and we didn't do it. It's small consolation we played the better football.

"Ronaldo and (Wayne) Rooney were outstanding. You saw it in the European Championships we have two of the great talents in the game and they showed it again today. We had all the chances and we dominated, but I don't suppose the Arsenal players will care too much about that, they've got the trophy."

One man who can empathise with Paul Scholes is Patrick Vieira, who scored on Saturday but whose miss in the 2000 Uefa Cup final contributed to Arsenal losing to the Turkish club Galatasaray. He said: "I didn't have any question about taking the penalty. The boss just said I was taking the fifth one and it was no problem, I like to be under this sort of pressure."

Geoff Thompson, the FA chairman, defended the use of penalties, saying they were not the perfect way of deciding any game, but that there was "no preferable alternative".David Dein, the Arsenal vice-chairman, said: "It is not the best way of course, but there is no other solution."