While Sir Alex Ferguson stood in line waiting for the VIPs to meet the teams before yesterday's Community Shield, he cast an eye all around the stadium. What he saw must have put him in a particularly good mood as he starts the second season of his extended term of office at Old Trafford.

Over to his right the stands allocated to the Manchester United fans were full. To his left, however, vast empty spaces gaped among the ranks of Arsenal's support. The contrast seemed to carry a deeper message, one which may not have been lost on Arsène Wenger, Ferguson's opposite number and bitter foe.

True, a train carrying supporters of the London club had been delayed on its way to Cardiff. But that alone could not account for the scores of empty rows, and the news that only 59,293 were present, in a venue with a capacity of 72,000, reinforced the impression that many Arsenal supporters had decided there were better ways of spending the afternoon. It was the lowest attendance at the fixture since 40,149 fans watched Everton beat Blackburn 1-0 at Wembley in 1995.

Three reasons were advanced by the club for this apparent display of apathy. First, tickets had been made available only to Arsenal's season-ticket holders. Second, they have paid so many visits to Cardiff in recent seasons that the novelty has worn thin. Third, their fans, unlike those of Manchester United, have already been able to see the team in pre-season games in the last couple of weeks.

Somehow those seemed more like excuses than reasons. The sense of hunger and anticipation emanating from the United end of the ground was notable by its absence among the Arsenal fans and it was possible to sense a residual disappointment from last May's failure to retain the Premiership title, when the team collapsed in the face of United's late challenge. So thorough a capitulation is bound to have lingering effects, particularly since financial constraints have prevented Wenger from regenerating his squad with new players.

Those economic restrictions are closely linked to the millions of pounds the club has pledged to its proposed new stadium, a project which seems to be receding into an indistinct future. Only a year after issuing a plausible threat to dominate English football, suddenly Arsenal look, if not exactly a Leeds United in the making, then at least a lot less confident of their ability to join the European elite with the present generation of players.

For one reason or another Ferguson has been equally unable to land a big summer signing of the sort that refreshes the squad and excites anticipation among the supporters. David Beckham and Juan Sebastian Veron have gone, while Fabien Barthez - to judge from his absence yesterday - is on the way out. Although Eric Djemba-Djemba, Tim Howard and David Bellion may prove valuable additions, it will be their deeds, rather than their reputations, that set pulses racing. But yesterday, despite the essential meaninglessness of the event, United played with a vibrancy that suggested their pre-season visit to the United States was put to good use, and their commitment made them worth a much more emphatic margin than the one with which they took the trophy for the first time since 1997.

The attacking trident with which they ended last season, featuring Ryan Giggs and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer on either side of the advanced Ruud van Nistelrooy, looked effective in the second half, once Paul Scholes had moved into the hole, though Scholes and Mikael Silvestre may not always find full-backs as willing as Ashley Cole to allow them to lift long diagonal balls into space for Solskjaer to collect.

Perhaps Arsenal, having won this trophy three times in the last five years, are now subconsciously reluctant to give it their maximum attention. Yet Wenger must be worried by the fact that they played yesterday as they played at the end of last season, not just without the mesmerising interplay at speed of a year ago but with a lack of even the most basic creative cohesion.

With the exceptions of Sol Campbell and Jens Lehmann, the debutant goalkeeper, every player looked to have lost form over the past 12 months, and some - notably Sylvain Wiltord and Dennis Bergkamp, and perhaps even Robert Pires and Freddie Ljungberg - may never regain it.

For all the signs and portents, nothing was settled yesterday. Although United look a good bet for a trophy or two this season, Wenger could still find the key to an Arsenal revival and it remains to be seen what Claudio Ranieri can do with the collection of exotic talent suddenly placed at his disposal at Stamford Bridge.

Yet, if United succeed in their attempt to capture the signature of Cristiano Ronaldo, the 18-year-old Portuguese winger, they will be acquiring a supremely gifted player capable not just of giving the side a crucial extra dimension but of making their supporters forget that Beckham ever existed. Ferguson, of course, has forgotten already.

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2003

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