PAUL ELLIOTT: I played for Chelsea, so it pains me to say this but they don't deserve to win the title
When you look at the football Manchester United have played this season, there is no doubt they deserve to win the title.
United have got determination, grit and nastiness but also the quality of their counter-attacking play is just breathtaking. That comes from manager Sir Alex Ferguson.
End of the road: Emile Heskey's equaliser for Wigan ended Chelsea's title hopes
The football Chelsea played under Jose Mourinho was what I call winning football. United play winning football but are so much easier on the eye. Chelsea have always been more functional and that has not changed under Avram Grant. If I watch a Chelsea game I look at the players individually rather than collectively. Individually, I am entertained but there is none of that collective impetus and enthusiasm I see with United or Arsenal.
Mourinho was at the club for three years and turned Chelsea into winners with a winning habit and a winning mentality. But the manner in which you win is important too. That is what makes United head and shoulders above everyone else in the Barclays Premier League.
Chelsea have tremendous power but there isn't much variation to their game. Fundamentally, they have played the same way the whole time; neither Chelsea nor Arsenal have had a Plan B.
If you want to win the title, you need more variation to your game. United have combined dominant, winning football with great counter-attacking ability.
There is no team in the world that can counterattack as well as them. As for Chelsea, I think they are at the crossroads now.
Where do they go from here? They had an excellent spell mid-season but in football things can change overnight.
Managers are judged on results and Grant will be no different. The result against Wigan handed the initiative in the title race to United and, even allowing for the psychological impact of losing Frank Lampard just before kick-off, that doesn't explain their first-half performance.
They failed to take the initiative despite having everything to play for. You wanted a message of intent to United — that they were going to make life as hard as possible for them. It never came.
