Ron Atkinson, manager of Manchester United when they opened the 1985/86 season with ten victories and still finished fourth after being hit by a string of injuries, sees no one to match Chelsea’s huge world-class squad this season.
”If Chelsea lose Claude Makelele, for arguments sake, they just bring in Michael Essien or Geremi or someone else. Injuries wouldn’t affect them half as badly as they did us,” he told The Times.
”Chelsea have such a big squad that it will take something major to disrupt them. What is even more impressive is the fact that they haven’t conceded a goal.
”People were wondering before the season whether they would have as much hunger and desire as Arsenal, United or Liverpool what with them having won it last season, but they look as if they’ve set themselves a fresh target of the record for the lowest number of goals conceded. They could go as low as 10 or maybe even single figures.”
And he believes United’s injury problems, with Gabriel Heinze out for the season and Roy Keane sidelined for two months, have already seriously jeopardised their championship hopes.
”I fancied United to run them really close this year, but they have lost a lot of players with injury,” he said. – AFP
