Manchester United were on Sunday celebrating their eighth premier league title in 11 seasons after Arsenal lost 3-2 at home to Leeds.

Alex Ferguson's team moved eight points clear at the top by beating Charlton Athletic 4-1 on Saturday, and Arsenal needed to win their last three matches to have a chance of retaining their title.

United, eight points behind Arsenal two months ago, have taken 45 points from a possible 51 since losing at Middlesbrough on December 26, winning 14 games and drawing three.

"It's fantastic, a great achievement by the team," Ferguson told Sky Sports. "We showed the perseverance and determination allied to the great ability we have, and that's what gave us the title."

Written off by many after an inconsistent start to the season partly caused by a crippling injury list, United hit rock bottom in November when they slumped to a 3-1 defeat against local rivals Manchester City.

"I'm surprised that people had doubts about Manchester United," said Ferguson who did not watch Arsenal's match against Leeds as he was attending his grandson's birthday party.

"We decided to take the poison and get the injuries sorted," he said, referring to the seven major operations undergone by his players in the early part of the season.

"My players can take a challenge," he added. "The question we had to ask after the Manchester City game was were they hungry enough?"

"We went on a fantastic run and that's what can happen in football," added Ferguson, who has now won 27 major honours in 29 years in charge of Aberdeen and Manchester United, making him the most successful manager in British soccer history.

Dutch striker Ruud van Nistelrooy was United's spearhead, his hat-trick against Charlton taking his tally to 43 goals in his second season at the club.

While Ryan Giggs will collect his eight premier league winners' medal and captain Roy Keane his seventh, it will be the first silverware as United players for Nistelrooy, Juan Sebastian Veron and Rio Ferdinand, signed for a combined cost of nearly 80 million pounds ($128.4 million).

It was the fifth time that United had clinched the premier league title without playing.

Only once, in 1999, have they won it in front of their own fans at Old Trafford, where Arsenal sealed the championship last season with a 1-0 win over their bitter rivals.

United's final match of the campaign is next Sunday at Everton, but Ferguson is already thinking about another tilt at the Champions League, in which they were knocked out at the quarter-final stage by Real Madrid in April.

"We've got to get the big one again," he said. "Twice is not enough for a club of Manchester United's size."

Ferguson led United to victory in the 1999 Champions League, 31 years after the club's only previous success in European soccer's top competition.