Darren Fletcher insists it was only injuries which wrecked Manchester United's chances of winning a fourth consecutive Premiership title.
At one stage in December, United were without eight first-team defenders, and Fletcher had to form an emergency central defensive partnership with fellow midfielder Michael Carrick.
"I'd have liked to have seen Chelsea cope with Lampard and Ballack at the back," he told the Daily Mail, smiling. "We've still got star quality and we'd have won the league last year if it wasn't for that injury crisis. But it's not necessarily about your star players. You need different components to make a team. You need everyone pulling in the same direction and we have that.
"It's important, for instance, that if Wayne Rooney isn't scoring, we've got other players who can step up. We'd love for Wayne to score 34 goals again, and he's definitely capable of it, but we can't expect it."
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