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.

"I kept deflecting that, saying how tough this League was and this is a reminder. Football can come back and bite you, we've had that many time.

"In a way that defeat can help us. They realise there is a lot of work to be done to win the League, as has been shown time and time again.

"We've had to go to the last game on three or four occasions to win the League so now we're in the position of saying, let's put the show back on the road again."

United could have had a more difficult challenge than a visit to a Fulham side that had lost three straight games until last week's win at Bolton and which lost to the Reds 4-0 in the recent FA Cup tie in London.

Gary Neville is back in the Manchester United squad after recovering from injury.