After victory over Fulham, Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson stood by his pre-match notes writing off Chelsea's title challenge. "You can never be dead sure but it is fair to say Chelsea have an uphill fight now," reflected 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."