United hope for title helping hand

Manchester United defender John O'Shea, seen here in September 2004, believes his teammates are going to need a helping hand from other Premiership sides if Chelsea's surge to the title is to be halted

Manchester United defender John O'Shea believes his teammates are going to need a helping hand from other Premiership sides if Chelsea's surge to the title is to be halted.

Jose Mourinho's league leaders will go into 2005 holding a nine-point lead over third-placed United as they seek a first title for 50 years.

The Old Trafford club are doing their bit to stop the Londoners with Tuesday's win at Aston Villa giving them 22 points from their last eight games.

But O'Shea, the 23-year-old Ireland international, knows it will be harder to catch Chelsea if their opponents have a defeatist attitude.

"With our current run, it is frustrating that Chelsea keep winning as well but if we keep winning our games there's no more that can be asked of us," he said.

"What we've just got to hope is that the other teams are not fazed at all about the prospect of playing Chelsea in their current form.

"You really do have to hope they don't have the feeling of being beaten before they've gone out and played against them."

O'Shea was a key figure in the move which led to man-of-the-match Ryan Giggs grabbing the only goal at Villa Park to keep United in touch with Chelsea.

"It was a very important win. We thought maybe Chelsea were going to drop a couple of points at Portsmouth earlier in the day which would have helped," said the Irishman.

"But they had a good result and we've got to worry about ourselves, keep winning and eventually something might happen for us.

"When you know Chelsea have won before you play, it does add a bit of pressure. But if they had dropped points, then maybe there is more pressure.

When that does happen there is going to be huge pressure on us to capitalise. With the players we have, we're going to be able to cope with that."