The most likely result for punters looking to place their money on Sunday’s bout between Manchester United and Chelsea is a draw. Chelsea cannot afford to lose, while a tie leaves both clubs with their respective title prospects still finely balanced.

Many United fans would happily settle for a point a piece in the hope that United can build on their lead as the season progresses. However, in my books a draw certainly favours Chelsea, as I see them as clear favourites to take all three points when the teams meet again towards the season’s climax in mid-April.

United have got to get over last Tuesday’s disappointing result against Celtic and make their chances count against Jose Mourinho’s team.

This match won't decide the title race, but a win will be an immense help in developing United’s sense of purpose and self-belief, which often seems fragile in comparison to Chelsea under the man from Portugal.

Sir Alex Ferguson recently stated how United have a tendency to do things the hard way, and they cannot afford the lapses of concentration that saw them come away empty-handed from Glasgow.

United have a footballing legacy almost without parallel in the Europe. They need to make this work to their advantage against Chelsea. The Blues' commercial supremo Peter Kenyon threw down the gauntlet with his remarks this week about aiming to make the Londoners a larger club than United. Now is the perfect time to make him eat humble pie.

Whatever their results on the pitch during the era of the Roman Abramovich empire, Chelsea probably have the blandest heritage of all the London clubs. Their contribution to English football culture amounts to a handful of players. With the exception of Ron Harris, Peter Osgood, Charlie Cook and Gianfranco Zola, there’s little to stir a neutral’s memory, compared to West Ham, Arsenal and Spurs. Even neighbours Fulham and Millwall have made more impression with the depth of faith shown over decades by their hard-suffering fans.

Chelsea are a little trite and artificial, just like the Kings Road area itself. For now the Russian oil money talks, but the resulting team is a fleeting fashionable artifact, vacuous and destined for a brief shelf life. Do we seriously believe that this club will be a serious force a decade from now, or do we harbour strong suspicions that the money is going to run out and that Chelsea will implode back to their former state of irrelevance?  

The Pensioners are essentially a product, a vehicle of post-Communist financial tinkering. The club’s management has no true relationship with the fan base, and the club’s history is of zero relevance. The current set-up reminds one of an American NFL franchise – in theory it could easily be transplanted to another city with hardly anyone blinking an eye, just as the Los Angeles Rams moved to St Louis just under a decade ago.

Compare this to United, where each time the team steps out of the Old Trafford tunnel the heady spirit of the past is mixed to combustive level with that of the present.

A United outfit that is not based on free-flowing, adventurous attacking football is not an authentic United team. The United that graced Old Trafford under Dave Sexton was only United in name, and Sexton is forever held in contempt by the supporters  for his failure to stay true to the club’s core values.

Ferguson and his men need to draw on the full depth of this legacy and the United sense of mission when they confront Chelsea, because at that level Chelsea are simply no competition, just a bunch of overpaid men in blue, ready to be swept aside. Go to it, lads.