From his Times column:
Arsenal and Manchester United have taken a bit of stick since our 0-0 draw on Tuesday night, although it is a strange season when taking a point from Highbury can be seen as disappointing. No one at Old Trafford will deny that we must keep improving but we believe that we are not a million miles from where we want to be.
We remain Chelsea’s closest challengers and 27 points from the last 33 hardly warrants an inquest. People are pointing to the lack of numbers in central midfield but Darren Fletcher and John O’Shea have been excellent in our last two matches. In defence, we have just signed a hungry new centre half in Nemanja Vidic, while Wes Brown has really come to the fore. I wouldn’t swap our strikers for anybody’s.
Yes, Chelsea are looking formidable, almost uncatchable, but I disagree with those people who say they can’t see an end in sight. I can. I think what Chelsea have done is remarkable but you can’t tell me that their players and management will not want to go to some of the European super clubs in the next few years.
Why do you think the Porto team broke up after they won the European Cup in 2004? Or the Blackburn Rovers one after they won the title in 1995? Chelsea have the resources to pay top wages, but the best players and managers will always want to prove themselves at the Nou Camp, the Bernabéu, Old Trafford or the San Siro.
That is taking nothing away from Chelsea’s phenomenal record. I think our manager summed it up pretty well the other night. He said that their consistency was incredible but he did not think that Chelsea had raised the level of performance. It is not like watching Barcelona, who can look unplayable on TV on a Saturday night. But they have a solidity and level of defensive work which is impressive. You can’t argue with 19 wins out of 21.
Someone told me the other day that we had made the third-best start to a Premiership season and, for most of my lifetime, our recent run would have been championship form.