So subdued that his voice barely reached the microphone, Alex Ferguson sat in the bowels of the Millennium Stadium and talked through the prospects for a group of players who had so thoroughly dominated Arsenal before seeing the season's last prize snatched away. "The test of any manager and player," he said, "is how they handle adversity. Over the years we've got a good record at this club and I think we can do it again. There's a good character in this club."

Only Roy Keane's age, he said, would represent a significant problem. Many of his players - Wayne Rooney, Cristiano Ronaldo, Darren Fletcher - were still very young. Others - Gabriel Heinze, Rio Ferdinand, Ruud van Nistelrooy - were in their mid-20s. Those who had recently turned 30, including Gary Neville, Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs, would be good for another season or two.

"I wouldn't write Manchester United off," Arsene Wenger had said a few minutes earlier. "They will come back next year and challenge for everything. But it's a blow, of course. If we had lost today it would have been a huge blow to us. Then every day you read that you have won nothing, and you cannot keep people happy when you don't win things."

Destined for a summer of being reminded that he came away from this season empty-handed, Manchester United's 63-year-old manager sounded thoroughly deflated. A single season without a trophy is hardly the end of the world, but the pain of seeing all three major domestic competitions shared between two London clubs was amplified by the knowledge that his players had spent two hours comprehensively outplaying Arsenal, with nothing to show for it.

They forced 12 corner kicks to Arsenal's one, they created a dozen chances in open play to Arsenal's none, they conceded fewer fouls and were manifestly superior in their tactical approach. They looked what they are, a team assembled from the finest ingredients, with a good blend of experience and youth and a strong collective mentality. And yet they could not score.

"I thought we played some great football and created a lot of chances," Ferguson said. "We've only ourselves to blame, really. We missed too many chances, and that's been the story of our season. I think in cup games you need a wee break, and we didn't get it. And the fact that we kept missing those chances encouraged them to go for penalties."

Goodness knows what Malcolm Glazer and his sons, watching the match via satellite television at home in Palm Beach, made of a match in which the dominant team crashed to a humiliating defeat as a result of one missed penalty kick by the man Ferguson used to call "the best finisher in the club".

The Glazers appear to have assured Ferguson that his rolling contract is good for the forseeable future, but the Scot would be only human if he looked back in the aftermath of this defeat and wondered if the most important missed chance of all was the chance to walk away from the job with his dignity intact and his record unblemished.

One thing that did surprise the United manager was the use of Dennis Bergkamp as a lone target man. So soon after his triumphant orchestration of the 7-0 defeat of Everton in the league, the Dutchman proved unsuited to the role. "It did surprise me, I must admit," Ferguson said when asked about Wenger's method of compensating for the loss of Thierry Henry. "Bergkamp hasn't got any real pace. He was giving Rio a two-yard start, which was a bit ambitious."

United's own attacking formation was a variation on the lone-spearhead structure with which Ferguson has been persisting for two years, since deciding that it is the format to which the gifts of his main striker, Van Nistelrooy, are best suited.

Scholes, Giggs and Rooney have been tried as deep-lying partners, without anything resembling consistent success. On Saturday the Dutchman was flanked by Rooney on the right and Ronaldo on the left, with Scholes sitting in front of the two holding midfield players, Keane and Fletcher. The shape gave United a clarity that Arsenal never achieved.

Both Ferguson's wingers held station close to the touchlines, seldom venturing infield and never, although both remained on the field until the end of extra time, attempting to unsettle Arsenal's defence still further by switching wings. Perhaps, given the number of chances being created, they felt the basic plan was working well enough, particularly when Mikael Silvestre was lofting his 50-yard diagonal passes on to Rooney's bootlaces.

Nor is there a sign that they will have anything new to offer next season. Apart from finding a goalkeeper to match the consistency of Chelsea's Petr Cech, only in midfield could Ferguson reasonably be expected to make a real improvement to his present personnel in the summer transfer market. He needs to identify the aggressive holding midfield player who can assume the role that Bryan Robson handed on to Keane. And, even more urgently, he needs to decide on the most effective way to deploy the talents of Rooney, the outstanding outfield player by a mile on Saturday.

Whenever the burly 19-year-old was in possession, Arsenal quaked. That he was not in the queue for a winner's medal at the end would have been as much of a mystery to him as to the rest of us. This might not be an appropriate time to remind him that he is playing for a manager who did not pursue the possibility of signing Zinedine Zidane a few years ago because, he said, he could not work out which was the Frenchman's best position.

What United needed on Saturday was less system and more spontaneity. Rooney, like Zidane, is someone to build a team around, not someone to fit into a blueprint. If Ferguson needs one last great test, here it is.