There are some things which you can now guarantee will happen in the Premiership season. Cristiano Ronaldo will get booed wherever he plays, Jose Mourinho will make a fool out of himself in the papers, Liverpool will claim that this is their season, Manchester City will only sell out their ground on derby day, and Newcastle will have an injury crisis.

Maybe there’s something in the water up in the North East, or maybe they train on a pitch of concrete, but there certainly seems some kind of injury curse. Complaining about injuries, or blaming them, is something which shouldn’t sit right with any fan. It always feels like a bit of a kop-out, and though at times justified, it should always feel awkward. Newcastle are a team whose fans should be vindicated from this awkwardness, however, and there will be various teams over the years who are also exempt.

But Chelsea are unlikely to ever be let off the hook. With hundreds of millions spent on players over the past few seasons, there should be no excuse for injuries having a drastic effect on the season. Injuries to Petr Cech and Carlo Cudicini aside, (however, it is important to note Chelsea dropped points in one quarter of the games Cech did play in) how much is there to the excuses which are coming out of the Bridge?

The absence of John Terry would, of course, hit any team hard, but if William Gallas and Robert Huth had not been sold on, would it have been devastating? Probably not. Anyone with a football brain could see it was senseless to get rid of two covering central defenders, and in their place, bring in a left-back, especially considering the one they already had, Wayne Bridge, was more than competent. However, this was done, and £9m was spent on Khalid Boulahrouz as cover.

Chelsea fans won’t need to be reminded that it was this joke of a defender who acted as the final straw in their disappearing title chase, who got sent off and gave away a penalty in the game against local rivals Arsenal which they needed to win to stay in the race. Unlucky with injuries, or poor managerial decisions in the transfer market?

Chelsea felt the injuries to Joe Cole and Arjen Robben - the latter  of whom was not starting for the club even when fit. Mourinho introduced an, erm, interesting tactic in the 2005-06 season in the semi-final of the FA Cup against Liverpool. Instead of playing with wingers, Jose opted for a 4-4-2 formation, with four central midfielders across the middle in the shape of Frank Lampard, Claude Makelele, Michael Essien and Geremi. The result? Chelsea looked poor, and Liverpool bossed the match, until Chelsea introduced width in the form of Cole, Robben and Eidur Gudjohnsen.

Chelsea were close to pinching a result at the end, but the decision to play without width for much of the game cost them the FA Cup. This surely should have been lesson enough for anyone with a football brain, but alas, it wasn’t. Chelsea sold on Damien Duff and Gudjohnsen, buying no replacement, and relied on the injury-prone Robben, the out-of-favour Shaun Wright-Phillips (who had been chosen to play in the equivalent of just 12 league games that season) and Joe Cole.

Instead of investing in width, Chelsea brought in two more central midfielders, Michael Ballack and John Obi Mikel (for a hefty £16m). Ballack couldn’t have appeared to give less of a sh*t if he tried, and Mikel, who repeatedly showed up late for training and threw tantrums on the field, managed to rack up eight yellow cards and two reds in his first season. Despite having the highest scorer in the league on their team, Chelsea scored 19 fewer than United, and eight fewer than in their previous season. Unlucky with injuries, or poor managerial decisions in the transfer market?

As we have already established, both Gary Neville and Nemanja Vidic spent longer out injured than Terry this last season, and whilst Chelsea have suffered because of the absence of Joe Cole (who made 13 league appearances) and Robben (21 league appearances), United have also struggled because of the absence of Louis Saha (24 league appearances, last game in March) and injuries to Alan Smith and Ole Gunner Solskjaer. Up steps a moment of managerial genius, with the introduction of Henrik Larsson on loan, who scored goals and had contributed massively to United’s league, FA Cup and Champions League campaign, in his three-month loan.

Of course Sir Alex Ferguson had the last laugh on this decision after the media had previously scoffed.
Now during the 2005-06 season, United were ravaged by injuries. Roy Keane bowed out to injury before finally leaving the club at a time when the manager had no opportunity to replace him. Paul Scholes played his last match of the season in 2005, before returning for the final game when the title had already been decided.

United played games with a back four of Phil Bardsley, Rio Ferdinand, John O’Shea and Kieran Richardson, as we saw all of our defenders face considerable time on the sidelines at one time or another. Ryan Giggs spent the season in and out of the injury room, forced to play in the centre of our midfield due to injuries for substantial periods of the season when he was fit.

If we had our first XI fit for the whole season, would we have won the league? Last season, United had won and lost the title enough times to know how it felt to be on both sides of the fence, and to know how to take victory and defeat. There was no bitterness from the United camp, no claims of being superior, no attempts to belittle the Chelsea achievement. “You won the league, Chelsea, but had we not had our injuries, it could/would have been different.”

Now, this success business is new for Chelsea players and fans, so maybe this is why they have been so poor at being gracious. Maybe this is why they appear so bitter to have conceded the Premiership title. Paolo Ferreira is the latest to join the list of the classless, claiming Chelsea are certainly a better team than United.

"I insist 100 per cent that United are not a better team than Chelsea," the Portuguese defender said: "When all our players are fit then we're still the best in the country. We played United three times this season and they did not win any of those games."

It is clear to anyone with a football brain that United were easily the best team in the country this year, playing the most exciting and entertaining football from a team of champions since Arsenal in their unbeaten season. Whilst Chelsea are unable to accept this, move on, and develop ways to become better than United, then United are certainly in the more favourable position.

As a United fan, I keep my fingers crossed Chelsea continue to blame their failure this season on injuries, and continue not accepting their flaws, and I look forward to the new season with greater expectation than I’ve had in years.