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Monday, 16 April 2007, 12:02 GMT 13:02 UK

Alan Hansen on the Premiership title

By Alan Hansen
BBC Sport football expert

From here on in, every Chelsea and Manchester United game will be like a cup final.

Jose Mourinho (left) and Sir Alex Ferguson

With both teams in the FA Cup final, the Champions League semi-finals and going for the Premiership title, it is set to be a dramatic end to the season.

Finally, after five or 10 years of the league being wrapped up early, this one is going right down to the wire.

Sure, you would rather be United than Chelsea because you are three points ahead with a better goal difference.

The Old Trafford club are in pole position, but then Chelsea have got the more experienced players as far as winning the Premiership is concerned, having got the last two.

Experience is going to count for an awful lot over the course of the next month or so, certainly as far as the two managers - Sir Alex Ferguson and Jose Mourinho - are concerned.

Much of what happens will depend on them, on what they do and do not say in the dressing room, how they motivate their team and how they stop the players from getting too tired.

I am sure the mind games are about to start - if they have not already - but this time more than ever it is so important they do not say the wrong thing.

There are some people in the dressing room who will embrace this situation and love it, others who will be scared.

"I don't think either Chelsea or United will win all of the three trophies remaining"

You must have the ability to work out the characters in your team and then get the best out of them. The managers have to get that right.

Chelsea have been unbelievable this season. They have not got the fluency of Arsenal and they cannot counter-attack like United, but they just do not go away. They keep plugging away until they succeed.

It is like that famous Julius Caesar quote: "I came, I saw, I conquered." Chelsea just sort of weigh you up and then beat you.

The run they have had has been remarkable, when you think they have been fighting on four different fronts, but they are probably getting by on adrenaline now because every game is so massively important.

Against Blackburn on Sunday, they had the first FA Cup final at the new Wembley Stadium as their pot of gold at the end of the rainbow - and that got them through.

I have said before that Chelsea have changed the face of English football forever and they have provided everyone in the game with a different challenge, not least of all Ferguson.

If you look at the 1980s and 1990s, you could win the title with not-so-great teams, but now if you are to beat Chelsea now you must have a great team and be having a great season.

If United win the Premiership, they will have done just that. They are doing remarkably well but Chelsea do not back off and they will both be there at the death.

I do not think either of them will win all three trophies they still fighting for, although the Treble has been done before and it will happen again.

If you are playing Saturday, Wednesday, Saturday and every game is vitally important, it makes it extremely difficult for all concerned.

But it is very exciting because we are going to have a great FA Cup final at the brand new Wembley and a really close title run-in as well.




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Blackburn 1-2 Chelsea (aet) (15 Apr 07 |  FA Cup )
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