After failing to retain the Premier League title, it is natural to look for the reasons why and I have done my fair share of that over the last few weeks.

However, there are also plenty of reasons why we were in a position to get pipped to the title by a solitary point and it is just as important to emphasise those things so this article is my attempt to do just that.

Here are the good things to have come from Season 2009/10.

Rooney In A Rare "Not Scoring" Pose

1) Wayne Rooney Scores Lots of Goals – There has always been a feeling that Wayne Rooney was being sacrificed in order to cater for Ronaldo. Always seemed a bit odd to me but there you go. However, with Ronaldo leaving, centre-stage was handed over to Wayne Rooney and he did not disappoint. He still likes to put a shift in and can still be seen picking the ball up in his own half but that has not detracted from his ability to find that area in and around the opposing goal from where he can be most deadly.

We have seen tap-ins, headers and six-yard-box poaching from Rooney this season but fewer of the outside-the-box thunderbolts. We have seen 34 goals from Rooney as opposed to his more usual 15-20 though and I know which one Fergie would rather have any day of the week.

The only sad part was that he got injured in the first leg of the game against Bayern Munich and has clearly been playing at less than 100% fitness ever since.

What Fergie now knows beyond any doubt is that he has another 25-30+ goals a season striker on his hands and if he brings in someone similarly prolific to play alongside him, we could be cooking with gas next season. The only question is: will Fergie be brave enough to go with the 4-4-2?

Rooney might be awesome but he still only counts as one, I’m afraid.

The Introverted Luís Carlos Almeida da Cunha

2) Nani finally starts to fulfill the potential – It can’t have been easy for Mr Nani ever since he came to Manchester United. Signed from Sporting Lisbon, Portuguese, pacy, tricky, plays on the wing… the comparisons with another Manchester United player who was here at the time of Nani’s arrival were almost impossible to escape. On paper, he looked like a carbon copy.

However, that was never fair. Ronaldo was/is a phenomenal player and was voted the best player in the world. Some were even starting to ask where he would fit in with the best players of all time.

To expect Nani to be equally as good just because he had a similar profile to Ronaldo was always asking a lot.

For a start, I don’t think Nani possesses the arrogance of Ronaldo. Nani always appears a far more introverted type who shies away from the limelight whereas Ronaldo practically encouraged it to shine upon him at every available opportunity.

It looked at one point as though this lack of confidence was going to be the undoing of Nani and it wasn’t helping that even some of his own team-mates (not naming any names, Dimitar Berbatov) would very publically show their displeasure at every little thing he did “wrong” (sometimes he did not actually do anything wrong, it was just that he failed to read their minds), the fans got on his back a bit and it looked at one point like he could even be on his way out of Old Trafford, if not in January then almost certainly in the Summer.

But then something happened to Nani and it is difficult to say exactly what it was. I thought perhaps he had been to see some sports psychologist or that the United coaches had used some special training techniques tailored especially for him. Mike Phelan scotched such lofty theories however when he put it simply down to “the penny dropping”.

Whatever it was, Nani has been a different player in the last few months of the season and has done almost as much as any player during 2010 to try to retain the title.

It also looks like he finally sees himself as a “proper” Manchester United player now and it was great to see him having a go at the strikers the other day because both made the same run and did not provide him with sufficient movement to give him a crossing option. The fact that one of the strikers was Dimitar Berbatov made it quite amusing.

Let’s hope that Nani continues this form into next season and, if it is not too much to ask, actually goes on to progress even further. Hey, there’s always room for improvement and a bit of consistency with the crossing and a few more goals would be a great place to start.

But for now, Nani can be satisfied with his contribution for the season just gone. I knew he could do it!

Say Cheese! I don't like cheese...

3) Antonio Valencia does Antonio Valencia better than anyone else – Being signed as a “replacement” for Ronaldo, some would have expected Valencia to wilt under the pressure of expectation but he simply refused to be drawn into any comparison and just carried on being the Valencia we bought from Wigan.

I don’t presume to know what goes on in Valencia’s head (he is impossible to read – he could make a mint at poker if this footballing lark dries up) but he seemed to say, “If United wanted Ronaldo, they shouldn’t have sold him. They have bought Antonio Valencia and Antonio Valencia is what they will get”.

No nonsense, no left foot and no tantrums – that just about sums Valencia up but he has shown how to sign for Manchester United and be an instant success and it involves not trying to be something you are not but to simply get on with the things that made Manchester United sign you in the first place.

That is not to say that improvement cannot be made by Valencia. He will be just 25 years old by the time the new season kicks off and the best is likely still to come from him but in the meantime, he can be satisfied with his first season’s work at Manchester United.

I have no doubts that he will be even better next season.

Evra-Ready Or The Duracell Bunny?

4) Patrice Evra never misses a game – I don’t know what Patrice Evra has for breakfast but Fergie should make everyone in his squad have the same. This guy is simply incredible. He has played more times than anyone else this season (a staggering 51 appearances) but that is quite normal for Evra. He made 48 appearances in the two seasons prior to this one.

That’s almost 150 appearances in three seasons and by rights, he should be crawling around on his hands and knees but he will probably play every game for France in the World Cup, every pre-season friendly for Manchester United and still put in another record appearance number next season.

Incredible. The fact that he is probably the best left-back in the World and a nice guy to boot are bonuses.

Did You Know? Patrice Evra has twenty-five brothers and sisters!? (Sadly, two are now deceased). At least that explains his remarkable jumping ability… he’s half bloody rabbit!

5) Mame Biram Diouf – Very good signing. Should be used more often. Nuff said.

6) We remain the team to beat – The fact is that for sixteen of the last nineteen years (there were three years when we “only” managed third place) any team wishing to win the League has had to finish higher than Manchester United to do so. On eleven of those sixteen occasions, no team managed it. This year Chelsea won by one point after being pushed all the way by us.

I see nothing to suggest that next season will be any different.