STILL in September, it is too early to be making worthwhile judgments about anything in the Premier League - or any other division - but it is a fact accepted on both sides that Manchester United’s sluggish start to the season has made their visit to Chelsea this afternoon even bigger than it originally seemed.

What was always going to be one of the season’s seismic matches takes on greater significance with the two teams having got off to such contrasting starts. United, the defending champions, have won just one of their first five matches in all competitions and are still smarting after last weekend’s deserved defeat at Liverpool. Chelsea, meanwhile, go from strength to strength, four wins in their first five games including thumping 4-0 victories over Portsmouth, on opening day, and Bordeaux in the Champions League last week.

It is true, as Sir Alex Ferguson points out, that United often start slowly and rarely hit their straps until October. Last season they won two of their first five, yet still finished as domestic and European champions. It is equally true that Chelsea, even under the lame-duck management of Avram Grant, pushed them all the way on both fronts, that last season’s dual runners-up are more formidable under Luiz Felipe Scolari’s inspirational command and that nine points, which would be the gap between the two in the event of a home win today, would be a powerful lead.

Chelsea have not lost at the Bridge in 84 league matches and they beat United there at the end of April. In playing terms, recent history, as well as current form, favours the blue corner. John Terry, the Chelsea and England captain, argues that his team are stronger and better equipped this time for the advent of Scolari and the acquisition of Deco, the playmaker who may be the bargain of the season at £8m, and Jose Bosingwa, another Portugal international, who has remedied the old recurring weakness at right-back.

Terry said: “Our football is better this season, we look very exciting. We’ve got more goals in us this time. The full-backs are giving us a lot more going forward, and Nicolas Anelka has improved so much he’s like a new signing. Deco has been awesome and Bosingwa gives us a bit more in attack, and defensively he’s sound as well. The manager has made some clever signings, but not only that, he has revitalised players who have been here for some time. Anelka is an obvious example.”

Grant, and Jose Mourinho before him, had deterred the full-backs from venturing across the halfway line, defending with a belt-and-braces mindset that was not to the liking of the club’s owner, Roman Abramovich. Scolari is doing the opposite, encouraging Bosingwa and Ashley Cole to supply width by raiding as auxiliary wingers.

Terry has statistics on his side when he states that the new Chelsea have more goals in them - 13 in their first five games compared with seven from the same number at the outset last season. And this without their principal striker, Didier Drogba, who is fit to return today. United, on the other hand, have struggled to compensate for the absence of their main man, Cristiano Ronaldo, scoring just four times in six matches, if the Community Shield is included. Ronaldo, after a 30-minute run-out as a substitute in the midweek stalemate with Villarreal, will play this afternoon, as will Paul Scholes, back after suspension, but Dimitar Berbatov is doubtful with the knee injury sustained during his curate’s egg of a debut at Anfield last week, and Nemanja Vidic is banned after his red card in the same match.

No major fixture in which United are involved would be complete without Ferguson’s notorious mind games, and the old boy was at it again, claiming Terry should also be suspended after his foul on Jo, of Manchester City, last week. Sent off on the day, the Chelsea defender had the decision overturned on appeal when television evidence proved he was not the last defender blocking the Brazilian striker’s route to goal. Justice was served, certainly in the eyes of Keith Hackett, the referees’ overlord, but not as Ferguson saw it. He accused Hackett, who told the match referee, Mark Halsey, that he had been wrong, of being biased against United and in favour of Chelsea. “If it had been Manchester United, Keith Hackett would not have done this,” Ferguson said, ignoring the fact that Hackett, whose formal title is general manager of the Professional Game Match Officials Board, played no part in the Football Association’s appeal process.

Terry smiled at the suggestion that Chelsea were being “wound up”. He said: “We’re experienced enough to deal with that - I’m sure our manager is. All that concerns us is our game, and we’re not doing much wrong at the moment. Vidic will be a big miss for them.”

When I put it to him that nine points would be a commanding advantage, Chelsea’s captain nodded and said: “It is a massive game for United. Things haven’t gone so well for them, and that’s a big incentive to get their form going here. We hope to stop them doing that, and a positive result for us would be a very good one. Mind you, it would still be early days, and we’ve not seen the best of Manchester United yet. There’s no doubt in my mind that they will go on a run and put themselves back in the frame.” In short, Chelsea have to do what United did last season, keep winning when they are out in front. But with Ronaldo yet to regain full fitness and the influential Vidic missing, it looks like Chelsea’s day again, possibly 2-1.