Furious Fergie left red-faced

"We showed a fantastic quality of football. It was the perfect way to beat the record in such an amazing stadium and against a team like Manchester United who, in Sir Alex, have such an example of success.

"This season we've been fantastic with only one defeat, a record of points, goals, victories and clean sheets. Everything the team did was fantastic and this would be the perfect-end. We should go for our holidays-today and finish the season." Ferguson's mood was less sunny but he somehow mustered the magnaminity to praise Mourinho. If the United manager's recent record against Chelsea is bad then his headto-head with the Portuguese makes even worse reading, with last season's Champions League defeat to Porto meaning he has failed to outwit him on six separate occasions.

Not even Ferguson could argue with such statistics and in a remarkably fulsome tribute he commended the work of his opposite number.

He said: "We congratulate the manager and his players on a marvellous achievement this season. We know Chelsea have raised the financial stakes, but money isn't the total reason for success. There's still a team to be built, balance to be created, tactics to be applied and spirit to be generated."

Mourinho maintained the cordial air, remarkably refusing to take the credit for Ferguson's winless streak.

He said: "I don't look at football in terms of managers. Porto and Chelsea got results against Manchester United, not Mourinho against Sir Alex. Football is about teams and in the last two seasons my teams did well against United, but in the future this could change.

"We beat Liverpool four times but lost against them in the fifth game which was most important, so maybe next season we cannot beat United. However, this season we were the best team, no doubts."

If Chelsea can maintain last night's hunger then they could yet improve, though odds of 10-11 on a successful title defence seem a tad tight. Not even Roman Abramovich would back his own team at that price.

For all the hysteria caused by the Russian's investment in Chelsea, it is a sobering thought that United fielded the more expensive team last night, with Rio Ferdinand, Wayne Rooney, Ruud van Nistelrooy and Cristiano Ronaldo costing more than the visitors' starting line-up combined.

With their leading lights injured or rested this was a triumph for teamwork-over talented individuals, for Mourinho's organisational skills over United's instinctive brilliance.

Tiago, the Portuguese hod-carrier whose passing is neater than his hair, encapsulated such a work ethic and, after Van Nistelrooy had marked his return with a goal, he scored a spectacular equaliser from 25 yards. From the moment they were level Chelsea never looked like losing and even threatened on the counterattack, with Frank Lampard creating second-half goals for Eidur Gudjohnsen and Joe Cole to seal an emphatic win.

With over two-thirds of the earth's surface already blue, Chelsea's dominance may yet come to fruition.