WHAT I wouldn't give to be a fly on the wall of the away dressing room at Stamford Bridge if Chelsea have nicked the point they need to clinch their second successive Premiership title a week tomorrow.
I'm thinking in particular now of Gary Neville. I can just picture him sitting there like the end of the world is nigh. Head in hands. Shirt already ripped off and thrown in the corner. Face like a bag of spanners. Cursing the day Roman Abramovich touched down in London.
Well come on, let's be honest. Not the best of losers is our Gary. And I'll wager he will be sick as the proverbial parrot if he and his United team-mates can't at least delay Chelsea's title celebrations on their visit to the west end of the giant ashtray that passes as our capital city.
But if that scenario does unfold, I've got a message for Master Neville. No. More of a prediction than a message.
Take it on the chin, Gary. Pop into the Chelsea dressing room and shake the hand of every one of Mourinho's players. Because in 12 month's time the boot will be on the other foot.
You, Gary Neville, will have the championship trophy in your hands as United's skipper. And that "decade" of dominance predicted by Abramovich's mouthpiece Peter Kenyon will have lasted for just two years.
How can I be so certain of that? Because the league table never lies. The best team over the course of a season will land the Premiership title.
Deserved
And over the course of this season Chelsea have been the best team because their match statistics tell us so. Let's not begrudge them their moment, they've deserved it.
But next season, I'm utterly convinced, will be different. The power base of English football will return to Old Trafford. Sir Alex Ferguson's team next season will be better than Mourinho's.
And, as I have mentioned already, the best team always - but always - ends up wearing the championship crown.
The signs of United's resurgence are already there for all to see. Thirty-one points out of a maximum 33 from their last 11 matches. Tradition has been maintained. The longer the season wears on, the stronger Fergie's sides become.
Had that surge started six weeks earlier this season, it's my belief that the championship trophy would already be destined for the Old Trafford sideboard.
Compare the Chelsea and United teams compartment by compartment. Would you swap Fergie's defence for Mourinho's? I certainly wouldn't. Neville, Rio Ferdinand and Wes Brown. Dependability in the first. Sheer football ability in the second and a born defender in the third.
And what about the new kid on the block Nemanja Vidic? He looks to me like he would trample his granny into the mud to get at the ball. He scares me watching him on the telly. Just what the Reds needed at the back.
And don't let's forget that the excellent Gabriel Heinze will be fit and raring to go at the start of next season. Yep, I would take Fergie's defence ahead of Mourinho's any day of the week.
Let's switch up front. Which of the two teams can boast the most firepower? No contest. United win that one hands down. Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Louis Saha. Wouldn't Mourinho just love to get his hands on that quartet? Chelsea would be unstoppable with a strike force like that. Just goes to show, Jose. Money can't buy you everything in this world.
Rivals
Now we come to the one department where Chelsea have had the edge this season, midfield. And if you are looking for the reason why the title has been won and lost then, in my book, you will find the answer in the differing engine rooms of the two Premiership rivals.
You can argue until you are blue in the face about the rights and wrongs of Roy Keane's departure from Old Trafford. What cannot be argued is that Keane's sheer presence and influence over the players around him have been badly missed. And to add to Fergie's problems in midfield he's been without the creativity of Paul Scholes throughout the entire second half of the campaign.
Mourinho has had no such midfield problems. For Keane you can read Claude Makelele. For Scholes you can read Frank Lampard. That, to my mind, has been the difference between Chelsea and United this season.
But Fergie, I'll guarantee, will address and remedy that midfield problem before the start of next season. He is already halfway towards finding the solution following the welcome news that Scholes is now well on the way to recovering from the blurred vision complaint which effectively ended his season in December.
Pervesely, that enforced break may prove to be just what the doctor ordered for the little ginger genius. He will have something to prove when he regains his first-team spurs at the start of next season and a fit and eager Scholes would be a major asset to any Premiership team.
And make no mistake about it, when domestic hostilities resume in August, Sir Taggart will have a new midfield enforcer in his line-up. I could name a dozen such players who would fit the bill but that would be pointless. Only Fergie knows who he wants - and he isn't saying.
So have a great championship party, you Chelsea lads. And while you are at it, take a long, lingering look at that piece of gleaming silverware. Because it's the last you are going to see of it for quite some time.
So, Master Neville. Don't feel suicidal if you fail to prevent the Londoners from clinching the title a week tomorrow.
Everything comes to he who waits. And I've the strongest of feelings that you will have to wait for only 12 months before joining that happy band of Manchester United captains who have had the honour of holding aloft a championship trophy.
Do you agree? Have your say.
