Sir Alex Ferguson has attacked Rafael Benitez for his arrogant attitude and claims the Spaniard needs to learn some humility.

Ever since the Liverpool manager's post-Christmas tirade at Ferguson, in which he listed a succession of 'facts' which backed his belief the Scot was receiving favourable treatment from the FA, there has been a drip, drip, drip of snide comments coming out of Anfield.

Ferguson has resisted them all, insisting he did not want to get drawn into a full-scale argument, questioning last week why Benitez was talking about him when he was preparing for a key Champions League encounter with Chelsea.

Click here to watch Ferguson's interview 

Yet there has been a sense that the growing irritation would eventually give vent to public anger.

And the trigger was Benitez's reaction to a second Liverpool goal against Blackburn at Anfield last Saturday.

Beset by injury, Sam Allardyce's side were forced to name central defender Christopher Samba as a lone striker.

Under the circumstances, Ferguson felt Benitez's reaction, a wave of the arms to signal the game was over, was unwarranted and unacceptable.

Coming on the back of Benitez's previous assertion that Everton, who face United in an FA Cup semi-final on Sunday were a 'small club', Ferguson decided it was time to make a stand.

"Benitez said Everton are a small club, which just points to his arrogance," said Ferguson.

"But it is one thing to show the arrogance he did. What you cannot forgive is the contempt for Sam Allardyce last week when Liverpool scored the second goal.

"I don't think Sam deserved that.

"He is a guy who has worked so hard for the LMA (League Managers' Association), looking after young players.

"He had a weakened team and to get that kind of contempt....I don't think any other Liverpool manager would have done that. It was beyond the pale.

"I am surprised no-one picked up on it. You would never get me doing something like that. You should respect managers.

"At times you have to have humility."

The strength of Ferguson's words suggest a deep-lying dislike of the former Valencia boss, who recently signed a new contract extension with Liverpool.

Amid the dispute which prompted Rick Parry to announce his intention to leave as chief executive, it was suggested Benitez wanted total control of all transfer dealings.

"He has put himself in a powerful position," observed Ferguson.

"He wants control of all the transfers. The reason, I don't know. But it's the last thing I'd want.

"I don't know what he does in his spare time but he is certainly not using it in the right way."

Benitez is making an unfortunate habit of upsetting rival bosses. But in Ferguson he is taking on the master of mind games.

To launch his attack now, in a week when Liverpool have been dumped out of the Champions League and have no game as their encounter with Arsenal has been put back until Tuesday, could be viewed as an attempt to exploit a weakness.

There is no question Ferguson views Liverpool as a major threat to his side's title ambitions, just as he did with Arsene Wenger when the Frenchman joined Arsenal.

But under the obvious antipathy towards Wenger was a deeper respect for how he tried to get his teams to play the game.

The same is not true for Benitez, who is slightly isolated in the north-west managerial mafia given Allardyce, David Moyes and Wigan manager Steve Bruce are all friends of Ferguson, while Mark Hughes is a former Manchester United player.

Ferguson feels Benitez reacts badly when he does not get his own way, the attempt to sign Gabriel Heinze in 2007 a case in point.

And the pressure is unlikely to become any less intense over the next few weeks as Liverpool chase their first championship since 1990.

Not that Ferguson will be spending much time thinking about that over the next 48 hours as he plots a way past Everton in the FA Cup semi-final.

It could be a much-changed Red Devils line-up at Wembley too given the enormous effort expended in Porto on Wednesday, raising the possibility of Wayne Rooney not given the chance to face his former club, with Cristiano Ronaldo, Rio Ferdinand and Michael Carrick among those who could also miss out, along with a more obvious candidate in Ryan Giggs.