Cristiano Ronaldo has taunted Chelsea by claiming that they are only Manchester United’s fourth biggest game of the season before Sunday’s Barclays Premiership match between the league’s top two sides at Old Trafford.
The Portugal winger insisted also that the champions would struggle if José Mourinho turned his back on them. United can open a six-point gap at the top of the Premiership by winning on Sunday and although Ronaldo, 21, admits the game is a massive test of his team’s title ambitions, he believes that a game against Chelsea just does not compare to matches against the club’s traditional rivals.
“Rivalry between us and Chelsea exists and I’ve experienced it in each match we’ve played,” he said. “But there isn’t the same passion as the Manchester derby or games against Arsenal or Liverpool. Perhaps it’s because now they are doing well, whereas before it had been United at the top.
“But this weekend’s game with Chelsea is vital. We’re neck-and-neck with them and that is a good sign because we can’t allow them to go too far ahead like last year. We are in a better position to win the league this year, but I think we are capable of winning everything — the Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League. Manchester United are fighting, as always, to win every trophy.”
Chelsea splashed out £31 million to sign Andriy Shevchenko from AC Milan last summer, but the Ukraine forward has failed to repay his massive fee. Michael Ballack, the midfield player who was also signed last summer on a £120,000-a-week contract, has similarly done little to impress since rejecting United to move to Chelsea from Bayern Munich.
Advertisement
But Ronaldo says that the most important ingredient at Chelsea is the manager. “Mourinho is a great coach and Portuguese, so I can’t speak badly of him,” he said. “But I’d like to see what would happen if he were to leave Chelsea. Perhaps they would then stop getting good results in England.
“I think Chelsea are about the same as they were last year and the transfers of Shevchenko and Ballack haven’t changed them too much in terms of their superiority to everybody else. They have to work harder to win games and they just do enough to win.”