Manchester United 1 Leeds United 1Manchester United's title aspirations have been bludgeoned by opponents brandishing only a wooden spoon. If, as looks increasingly likely, Arsenal are to reclaim the championship trophy, Alex Ferguson should focus his inquest into how his side have surrendered five points against the Premiership's bottom clubs in Leeds and Wolves.

Between them the setback at Molineux and the solitary point against Leeds are acts that should be regarded as reckless by everyone at Old Trafford, particularly with a home defeat by Middlesbrough sandwiched in the middle.

United may be skilled escapologists but, given the seven-point gap behind Arsenal, and the differing form of England's best two sides, retaining the title might need an even more impressive feat of durability than that of last season when they were eight points adrift at one stage but with a game in hand.

Arsenal should be indebted to an obdurate Leeds side who played as if the absence of goalkeeper Paul Robinson and Mark Viduka merely enhanced their spirit of togetherness rather than formed a ready-made excuse.

Alan Smith was the outstanding player by a country mile, and Leeds created the impression of being better equipped to clamber out of the relegation zone than Ferguson's players are to overhaul Arsenal.

Ferguson's mood can usually be gauged by the glow of his cheeks and they were a Tyrian purple. The manager seemed at a loss to explain the sluggishness of his side and their inability to expose the youthfulness of Scott Carson in the Leeds goal. Turning his thoughts to the title, he spoke of a "mountain to climb".

Climbing mountains is hard when you do not have the right equipment and, without Roy Keane in the starting line-up every week, United are slipping around like someone going up Everest in slippers. Ferguson may now regret preserving Keane for Wednesday's Champions League tie in Porto, just as he may have private misgivings about his reluctance to recruit a replacement for Rio Ferdinand in the transfer window.

The ankle injury suffered by Mikael Silvestre in a full-blooded challenge with Smith could be critical if United's most improved player is unavailable for the trip to Portugal. It is easy to sympathise with Wes Brown, recently back from the fourth serious injury of his short career, but he would have to be considered a significant risk, as would John O'Shea.

Keane's allegation that there is a culture of complacency among some of United's younger players seems to have left O'Shea low in confidence and Porto's infiltrators will have noted the regularity of his errors.

They would also have detected the vulnerability of Quinton Fortune at left back, the wastefulness of Ruud van Nistelrooy's finishing and the frequency with which Seth Johnson and Eirik Bakke - painters and decorators when compared with the landscape artists at Ferguson's disposal - hustled their opponents off the ball.

Eddie Gray, the Leeds manager, reserved special acclaim for Johnson who has been targeted by their supporters for criticism recently.

"I've had a couple of chats with him because I don't think he's been fully using his talents," said Gray. "We've not been seeing the best of him, but he knows what I expect of him now and he epitomised our performance."

Gray's accolades extended to the home fans, who observed the minute's silence for John Charles with great dignity, and it was not lost on him that on the day the club mourned one of their greatest centre forwards, a modern-day Leeds hero should score their goal.

Smith may be of an age that he grew up with posters of Vinnie Jones and David Batty on his bedroom walls, but he will have heard enough about Charles to be flattered by the comparisons that followed his expertly headed equaliser.

It cancelled out Paul Scholes's goal three minutes earlier when Carson pushed Gary Neville's cross into his path.

But thereafter, with Louis Saha sidelined because of a calf strain, there was never the sense the home side would steal it.