Sir Alex Ferguson wants to see a return to the days when he enjoyed trips to Stamford Bridge and United prospered with an excellent record.

The last 10 fixtures against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge bear a stark contrast with the 10 that came before them. In the last 10, United have won only once, drawn four and lost five. Before it, the stats read: won five, drew three, lost two. Those figures are undoubtedly skewed by Chelsea’s rise to prominence as title contenders, but still, Sir Alex naturally prefers the earlier statistics.

“We would like to improve our record there,” said the boss. “It’s not been that great in the last few years. We’ve had a couple of draws but nothing more than that. We hope to improve on that. It’s strange, we used to have a terrific record at Stamford Bridge, but in the last few years we’ve let it slip. We have to get our act together. But the players realise it’s a big game and that their performance is going to be important.”

Even at this early stage, the game will be discussed as a potentially decisive in the title race. Sir Alex doesn’t think it’s as cut and dry as that, but there is a marked difference between going top or being five points behind Chelsea come Sunday evening.

“It doesn’t come into my thinking that it is a league decider,” countered the boss. “But it could be an important game. Towards the end of the season, you might think, ’I’m glad we got a result at Chelsea’. But it’s difficult to pinpoint the importance of Sunday in relation to where we’ll be in May.”

Sir Alex has been impressed with the consistency of Chelsea under Carlo Ancelotti, a coach and former player he admires greatly. “Ancelotti was a great coach at AC Milan and he’s brought a wealth of experience to Chelsea. He was also a