Over the past few weeks Sir Alex Ferguson has had to think on his feet when it’s come to picking the team, given the amount of injuries we’ve suffered. There have been matches when Ferdinand, Evans, Evra, Brown, Neville and Rafael have all been injured, meaning the likes of Eckersley and Fabio have been drafted in to the first team.

Our manager has reflected on 1998 when we blew a 12 point lead to let Arsenal in to claim the Premiership title, but insists our squad is strong enough to cope these days.

“You can never be dead sure but it is fair to say Chelsea have an uphill fight now,” said Ferguson. “Things can happen. We were 12 points clear of Arsenal in 1998 but we got a lot of injuries and lost the league. Now we can cope with it, like we have done in the last few weeks. That is the change at this club. We have such a big squad we can make changes.”