Now the Petr Cech injury is one which couldn’t be helped, and was worsened with the following injury to Carlo Cudicini. Bbut whilst not trying to rub your noses in it, if both Edwin van der Sar and Tomasz Kuszczak were injured, United would have coped quite happily with Ben Foster between the sticks. Regardless, Jose Mourinho can’t be blamed for not taking the precaution there.

Had Jose Mourinho kept Robert Huth and William Gallas, the injury to John Terry would not have had the impact it did. Jose, of course, had spent £9m on Boulahrouz, but unfortunately for Chelsea, his performances could usually be best described as somewhere between comical and inept. Central midfielder Michael Essien was then relied upon to go in defence, and whilst he certainly worked hard, and certainly had a positive impact, his positioning was poor (as expected, he’s a midfielder, not a defender) and Chelsea could have done with his influence and presence in midfield.

United won the league, so didn’t really need to bang on about their injuries, but it is interesting to note that both Nemanja Vidic and captain Gary Neville missed more league matches than John Terry this season. With six games left to play, United were forced into playing Darren Fletcher at right back and Kieron Richardson at left back, due to injuries to Rio Ferdinand, Patrice Evra, Vidic, Michael Silvestre, Neville and John O’Shea. Wes Brown stepped up to the plate, and Gabriel Heinze, whose position had been filled by Evra until his injury, was forced to the centre of defence.

Chelsea played most of the season without Joe Cole and Arjen Robben; however the latter, even when fit, wasn’t given a starting place in Chelsea’s new four- man midfield. Fortunately for Chelsea, Didier Drogba finally showed up, after two years of playing a bit part in Chelsea’s success. He helped carry the Chelsea attack.

With United’s incredible goals tally, you’d be forgiven for thinking they haven’t struggled with any of their attacking players. However, Louis Saha, who was favoured over Ruud van Nistelrooy by Sir Alex Ferguson played his last league game for United three months ago. There have been times within those three months when Wayne Rooney has been our only available striker. Funnily enough, those kind of facts are swept under the carpet.

Star men: Drogba has had a great season, and has started to show why Chelsea forked out a whopping £24m. He racked up 13 league goals between August and the end of 2006, keeping Chelsea in the race with his strikes against Everton, Newcastle, Fulham and Reading in December. However, in 2007, Drogba has just six league goals to his name. Whilst this isn’t a massive criticism of him, as it is difficult to keep up with the precedent he’d set, it is a contributing factor to Chelsea’s failure this season. When he ran out of steam, there was no one to take over the reigns.

This is in contrast to United. Cristiano Ronaldo has claimed prizes for PFA Player and Young Player of the Year, as well as the Football Writers' Player of the Year, and whilst currently the second highest scorer in the league, also has the highest amount of assists to his name. I'm bored with singing his praises. He's simply been amazing. Over the past few weeks he has shared the goalscoring and assisting role with Rooney, who prior to this time had had a relatively quiet season. But just as other players and other teams start to tire, Rooney has stepped up to his form of the season. When we needed that extra fight, that extra grit, Rooney has provided us with it.