• Chelsea will struggle to finish in top four, says United manager
• David de Gea set to return for Stamford Bridge showdown

Sir Alex Ferguson is used to new challenges. In Manchester United’s two decades at the top he has experienced intense title rivalry with Arsenal and then Chelsea, though now it appears Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur are the greatest dangers. And, though United visit Stamford Bridge on Sunday afternoon, a ground where they have not won in the league for a decade, Ferguson believes Spurs a month later could prove the tougher trip.

“We’ll certainly be glad to get the two games out of the way,” the United manager says. “Chelsea away followed by Spurs away is a tough spell for us and, if we can get through them both and still be in a good position, it gives us a chance. The league table suggests Tottenham might be the harder game because they have been playing well all season and they are challenging for the title.

“We have had some fierce battles with Chelsea over the years but this time they might not finish in the top four. I am certain Spurs will qualify for the Champions League this season, so if the two Manchester clubs stay in there as well, that only leaves one spare place. The way it looks at the moment, either Arsenal or Chelsea are going to miss out.”

That Arsenal and Chelsea have found it difficult to maintain momentum over the years while United have remained a constant in pushing for the title is a testament to the stability and sustainability of Ferguson’s long reign. “Arsenal used to have some very good sides and you knew you would be in for a tough, physical encounter,” he says.

“That has changed in recent years. Chelsea used to get off to terrific starts to the season under José Mourinho. They caught us cold at first until we started to make sure we could do the same. For the past seven years all our games with Chelsea have been battles, nip and tuck all the way, but you can see the new manager is trying to introduce a different style. Didier Drogba is getting a bit older and they have let Nicolas Anelka go but players like Ramires and Juan Mata have been brought in and Daniel Sturridge is a real threat.”

Chelsea were beaten 3-1 at Old Trafford in September, in a game so open Ferguson suggested the final score could have been 20-18, back at the stage of the season when United were still giddy with their 8-2 win over Arsenal and unaware that a 6-1 home defeat in the Manchester derby was around the corner. If you had told Ferguson after that result that he would go into February level on points with City at the top of the league he would have been extremely relieved, Chelsea and Arsenal have not proved quite as adept at reacting to a new set of circumstances.

“The landscape has changed in the Premier League this season,” Ferguson says. “All of a sudden Spurs and City have come along and they have both got genuine title aspirations. But that’s what makes the English league so great. If you look almost anywhere else around Europe – Spain, Germany, Portugal – it’s a two-horse race every time. France is the only country with a league that is anything like as competitive as ours, and the fact that there are two new title challengers in England this season is what makes this league really special. There used to be a top four, and some people used to complain about it being set in stone, but it isn’t any more. United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool always used to go into the Champions League, but now there are two new teams in the picture and two of the old ones could miss out.”

David de Gea, who came in for criticism when United went out of the FA Cup at Liverpool last weekend and replaced by Ben Amos for the win over Stoke City, is likely to return on Sunday, with Anders Lindegaard still injured. Ben Amos deputised in midweek and enjoyed a surprisingly quiet evening against Stoke, but Ferguson feels Stamford Bridge will be an intimidating arena for a player with only a single Premier League game under his belt. “You need experience in these situations,” he says.

“David has found it difficult to adapt to the English game and has made a few mistakes, but I don’t think we will be talking about those in a few years from now. It is always hard being the new Manchester United goalkeeper and it is a hard task to replace someone of the stature of Peter Schmeichel or Edwin van der Sar, but David has a great talent and the reason we went for someone young is so he could develop into the role. The problem we had with corners at Liverpool was really due to the centre-backs, not him. We had sorted it out by the second half and it shouldn’t happen again.”

Manchester UnitedSir Alex FergusonChelseaPremier League 2011-12Premier LeaguePaul Wilson
guardian.co.uk

Speed of thought the new mantra for Chelsea’s manager as he looks to inject additional pace into team

Perhaps it is not so surprising that Roman Abramovich demands that his managers find that rare blend of winning and aesthetic football. Considering the match that supposedly turned him on to the game was a 4-3 extravaganza involving Manchester United and Real Madrid in April 2003, with a series of galácticos on display (Ronaldo, Luís Figo and Zinedine Zidane bewitched for the visitors while David Beckham, Ruud van Nistelrooy and Roy Keane delivered for the hosts), is it any wonder the Chelsea owner has lofty expectations? His benchmark was one of the glitziest matches in Champions League memory. There was a Harlem Globetrotters feel to an affair that dripped with so much romance it was almost sickly sweet.

For all of Chelsea’s many successes (and near misses) since Abramovich began his Stamford Bridge project, the feeling persists that he is yet to be satisfied that any of his managers has created the perfect blend of easy on the eye and peasy with the medals.

André Villas-Boas has spoken liberally – but vaguely – of the myriad things he is trying to change to bring about a new Chelsea style. In their Champions League victory over Bayer Leverkusen there was progress. He defines it as “speed of possession”. Coming after Fernando Torres’s public critique of the team’s velocity last week, it is an interesting development. Villas-Boas and his staff have been working hard to add speed of possession, of movement, of thinking, into Chelsea’s gameplan. So why is it important to play quicker? “Because of the nature of British football basically, because it is full of high speed and high emotion,” he says. “Maybe that is what we’re trying to transform.”

But what is striking is the way it is coming about. Chelsea are looking towards a Latin influence to make the difference. The bulk of recruits to arrive in the past year have come from southern Europe and the Americas – the technique of Juan Mata, Oriol Romeu and (if they can ignite it to the full) Torres from Spain, the dashing David Luiz and Ramires from Brazil, the subtlety of Raul Meireles from Portugal, the youthful prospect Ulises Dávila from Mexico.

Compare that to the intake from five summers ago: Michael Ballack, Andriy Shevchenko, Ashley Cole, Wayne Bridge, Khalid Boulahrouz, Mikel John Obi and Salomon Kalou. The blueprint was generally for a muscular six-footer whose football education took place in northern Europe.

Glance around the English participants in the Champions League, and the example of the success stories from Barcelona and the Spanish national team seems to be setting an increasingly potent trend. According to Villas-Boas, the example is not so much about speed of touch but of thought. “Barcelona have redefined the notion of time and space in football,” he says. “What they have done is increase the speed of circulation of the ball by slowing the game down in their minds. In British football the game is too fast in your mind. Decision making collides with the speed and the nature of the British game.”

Can he adjust that at Chelsea? “I can propose it,” he says, mindful of the fact he is searching for a balance between new ideals with the culture of the game in the Premier League. Deep down, he does not think any other club can mimic Barcelona. “The mixture they have together is something out of this world and I don’t think it’s possible at the moment for any other club. It’s Iniesta, Xavi, Messi, Piqué. So many brought up in that school they are able to show their full potential for the first team.”

But looking for that balance between southern and northern football styles is clearly worth pursuing. It may be a trick of the eye – especially when you see Stoke City reinforced by Peter Crouch – but the Premier League seems to have become a magnet for smaller players in a way it has never been before. Where athletic prowess and physical bulk was a basic prerequisite not so long ago, now increasing numbers of dainty, nimble, ball players are running amok.

Manchester City are the most arresting example, with their agile front players weaving free-flow patterns that leave their fans giddy in more ways than one. The way that David Silva, Sergio Agüero, Samir Nasri and Carlos Tevez buzz around the final third makes them look like they would belong as comfortably in La Liga as they do in the Premier