Birmingham City 1 Manchester U 1:THERE IS more solidarity than rivalry among the expected contenders for the Premier League. They are covering for one another nowadays. Chelsea could take only a scoring draw at home to Everton last month, but the result has acquired respectability since Arsenal were lucky to get a point against David Moyes's side on Saturday. In the same fashion, Manchester United followed Chelsea's example by being held at St Andrew's.

That perspective, of course, fails to recognise the tenacity and discipline in a Birmingham line-up now unbeaten over 13 matches in league and FA Cup.

Even so, manager Alex McLeish also knows these are good times to be facing the elite. All of them are living in queasy days when key performers have departed for foreign clubs, the Africa Cup of Nations or the treatment room.

There are long-term issues to be addressed at United, but the priority for Alex Ferguson is to grapple with immediate troubles. He expected, for example, that the skill of Dimitar Berbatov would cow opponents, but the Bulgarian’s minimalist style had almost led to his disappearance from matches before knee trouble ruled him out of Saturday’s game.

The manager’s unease was clear immediately after the match when he was scornful of a television interviewer, even though she had been right to note the sporadic service Wayne Rooney had received.

It would have been smarter and more gracious for Ferguson to parry the question by paying tribute to Birmingham for sharing, with Chelsea and Fulham, the Premier League’s best defensive record at home.

United still have a realistic chance of taking the title for a fourth consecutive season. Their team, indeed, will improve once injuries clear and Ferguson’s preferred defence is on the pitch. If nothing else, that would divert attention from other difficulties.

For instance, when picked, the veteran Paul Scholes tends to be placed in front of the defence to spare him undue running.

The opposition is thereby excused the menace he once posed. With the midfielder’s impact restricted, Birmingham were able to take the lead through Cameron Jerome’s close-range finish from a poorly defended James McFadden corner after being under steady pressure.

In a disconcerting match, Birmingham hit better form in the second half yet allowed United to pull level when Scott Dann tucked a treacherous low cross from Patrice Evra past his goalkeeper.

A flag was raised, but Rooney had neither touched the ball nor even been offside and Mark Clattenburg rightly overruled his assistant.

The referee, of course, did not leave the pitch to applause since by then he had shown a red card to Darren Fletcher. The United midfielder had received his first caution for a foul on Lee Bowyer just before the interval, but Ferguson considered it an over-reaction by Clattenburg when another yellow card was shown for deliberately tripping Jerome in the 84th minute.

In truth, the referee had been a model of tolerance when dealing with a footballer who seemed determined to squabble with him from the first half on.

Despite their rise to eighth place in the table, Birmingham have few delusions. With all four midfielders muted or simply outclassed in the first half, McLeish’s team had the pragmatism to concentrate on defending in their penalty area.

Even with the full-backs harassed, the centre-backs, Roger Johnson and Dann, stood firm. It was testimony to their concentration and resolve that Joe Hart did not have to hurl himself around in the goalmouth to any great degree.

There was a time when United would have taken a seemingly obvious step up, but, despite a shortage of frenzy, Michael Owen was an unused substitute. The forward had given a very convincing impersonation of his former self when scoring a hat-trick in Wolfsburg on December 8th, but he has started just one of United’s seven matches subsequently.

He is unsuited to being a substitute and he has not scored since that Champions League night in Germany. The custom had been to ask about Owen’s prospects of getting back into the England squad, but being on the field at kick-off for his club has turned into the pressing topic.

In a tortuous campaign, Ferguson cannot afford even to take it on trust that a famed predator will come good.