Don't take it for Granted that Chelsea will play second fiddle to Manchester United

Yesterday Avram Grant suggested Chelsea would have been better off if he had been in charge from the start of the season and not Jose Mourinho with his flashy continental overcoats and his Wildean epigrams rattled off like a maniacal machine gunner.

Dour Avram has been teased by the Press from the off - the fact that the man with an undertaker's visage was brought in to sex up Chelsea's style of play was greeted with scoffs and chortles from all quarters.

Since then, accusations about his arcane cone-centred training methods and his apparent desire for Chelsea to play 4-5-1 have meant that the initial soupcon of doubt has turned into a gloopy vat of media disgust.

Looking back over the season, the only consistent slump in form came during Mourinho's time in charge. But with the Portuguese manager's slick and flash image it seemed a natural assumption to believe that he was the one playing dynamic and aesthetically pleasing football.