Sir Alex Ferguson and his Manchester United players have been careful not to gloat since the departure of José Mourinho from Chelsea last month, but Cristiano Ronaldo has admitted to the sense of optimism at Old Trafford by saying that the London club are no longer the same team without their Portuguese manager.

In the interests of diplomacy, the subject of Mourinho’s exit was off limits when Ronaldo held a press conference a week ago to launch his new book, but when he was asked this week how strong Chelsea would be without Mourinho, the winger said: “Chelsea without Mourinho, that’s a completely different team. You can never write Chelsea off, but I have a feeling that this will not be a good season for them.”

Ronaldo’s remarks are unlikely to please Ferguson, the United manager, whose preference is for his players to be seen and not heard. The comments were made in an interview with a Viennese newspaper, Heute, given to promote next summer’s European Championship finals in Austria and Switzerland. The Portugal winger also boasted that United are favourites to win the Champions League.

United are bullish after eight consecutive wins in the Barclays Premier League and the Champions League, a run punctuated only by the glaring 2-0 home defeat by Coventry City in the Carling Cup, but a series of injuries has given Ferguson cause for concern.

Louis Saha withdrew from the France squad yesterday with the knee injury he suffered while warming up before the 4-0 victory over Wigan Athletic on Saturday. Saha follows Edwin van der Sar, Nemanja Vidic, Michael Carrick, Darren Fletcher and Owen Hargreaves in being ruled out of international duty this week, but Gary Neville, a long-term absentee, hopes to step up his rehabilitation by appearing in a reserve-team match against Liverpool tomorrow.