Fergie rounds on his hyped-up stars

SIR Alex Ferguson claims his Manchester United stars have been brought back to earth with a bang after the humiliation against Liverpool.

The United boss was stunned by the 4-1 capitulation at Old Trafford which has given both Liverpool and Chelsea a glimmer of hope in the title race and has accused his players of believing some of their own publicity in the build-up to that showdown.

But he insists that when United run out at Fulham tomorrow they will be back to the ruthless best that gave them such an impressive lead at the top of the table.

Ferguson said: "For weeks we had to listen to a lot of eulogies and compliments about how great this team was.

"I never got carried away with it and the point I was trying to get across was, it's not effecting me, I hope it is not effecting anyone else!

"Everybody likes to read good things about themselves in the papers, especially young players, they like to think they're the bees' knees all the time.