The Premiership champions are angry at suggestions the fans are thugs especially on the road. Spokesman Paddy Harverson said today: 'The vast majority are extremely well behaved home and away.

'However as at all other clubs we do sometimes have a problem with a tiny minority who misbehave.

'Manchester United has never said hooliganism has been completely eradicated but there is no doubt the behaviour of fans today is far better than it was 10 or 20 years ago.'

The club compile a post-season report every year with the verdicts from safety officers at venues across the country that played host to United.

Coventry and Bradford stated they had huge problems with the travelling support but Harverson said: 'Out of 22 games, seven of those were seriously critical. The other 15 were virtually trouble-free.

'Out of 52,270 supporters who travelled, only 87 fans were arrested, which is 0.16%, and 86 ejected. That is a tiny proportion.'

Harverson points out that high-profile away matches against Manchester City, Arsenal, Leeds and Liverpool passed off almost without incident.

He said: 'There were no arrests at Man City and the comment was it was `relatively trouble free'.

'At Arsenal there were no arrests and there were `no real problems'.

'There were three arrests at Leeds but the supporters were said to be `generally well behaved'.

'At Liverpool there were no arrests and `the event went very well'.'

Harverson added: 'In home games we had over two million fans and the number of arrests were 130. That's 0.0065%.

'A number of those arrests were for ticket touting rather than violent conduct.

'It is a remarkable record of behaviour considering the number of people attending. Football is now fantastically safe for a number of people and our figures back it up. We've not had a single serious incident.'

The Football Association believe clubs, like Manchester United, have taken positive steps in the past few years to try and eradicate hooliganism.

Spokesman Adrian Bevington said: 'Looking back over the 1999-2000 season, over 25 million people attended matches and fewer than 0.01% were arrested. Most were offences of a minor nature.

'We are not saying we are free of hoolganism. However a massive amount of work has gone in since the Taylor report to try and eradicate it.

'We now have magnificent stadiums and one of the best records of the major supported football countries in Europe when it comes to hooliganism.