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MANCHESTER United was controversial.

Arsenal were kicked out of it and reffed out of it and they lost 2-0 and then they felt sorry for themselves for the next four weeks.

I knew they could not beat PSV in Eindhoven.

Betting against Arsenal (for the first time ever) felt a bit disloyal, but I got over it.Betting on Bush made me feel dirty for 3 days. But I knew the election was fixed.

Everyone is waiting for Sunday – and almost everyone thinks Chelsea will win.

And everyone hopes Chelsea don’t win everything, since that will wreck English football. What’s left of it.

I could bottle my prediction. I could easily fudge it.

But I have to be honest.Readers expect me to say what I really believe.

I THINK CHELSEA WILL WIN.

Five of my last six predictions have been wrong – and I really hope I’m wrong about this one.

With Vieira and Gilberto, I might have fancied Arsenal to nick it.

But I’ve been off-balance since Lehmann was dropped.

OK, Almunia may prove to be a masterstroke.

I reckon Arsene will bring Lehmann back, and if he does that, the champions will not lose 4-0.

Nigel Bidmead called and we talked about the theme of his preview for BBC South East News at 6.30 tonight. So I will watch that.

Nigel reckons Mourinho might play Geremi wide on the right. And he thinks that Chelsea might play Drogba, not Gudjohnsen.

I don’t really see it that way.

MOURINHO has more options, so he can make more mistakes in his selection.

If he fears Arsenal’s firepower, he might go with three halfbacks – Smertin, Makelele and Parker.

If he is going for an 8-point lead, he will start Duff, Robben and Gudjohnsen, and look to play Lampard into shooting positions ASAP.

BASICALLY, I see Arsenal v Chelsea as a clash of styles and beliefs : pace against organisation, rhythm against tackling, lightning raids against solidity, a team that passes the ball forward a lot trying to break down a team that passes it sideways a lot.

ARSENAL’S SUCCESS comes from speed and rhythm and quick, early passing from the back.

Pressing causes that style to stutter.And Chelsea are good pressers.

If it’s 0-0 after an hour, Chelski can bring on Tiago for Smertin, as they did in Porto, and Drogba for Gudjohnsen.

A draw will leave Arsenal still five points behind. A win will close the gap to two. A defeat will open the gap to eight and Chelsea then have two home games against Norwich and Villa.

So it’s a big game for Chelsea, but a bigger game for Arsenal, because they need to win.

The Arsenal player most likely to score is Pires.

Terry always has a mistake in him, the speedy, agile Carvalho does as well, and Gallas is no left back.

But Chelsea have more ways of scoring and more scorers.

Robben snakes towards the box like a python on rollerskates, and Duff is a ballsy Irishman that I’d pick alongside Puyol and Shevchenko in a team playing for my life.

If Arsenal can beat Chelsea, they will get a helluva lot from it. More than the three points.

As I say, I hope it’s not a red card day. I really hope the players and ref Graham Poll can prevent the game becoming controversial.

Mostly, I want to see a contest of competitive skill. It could be the pivotal match of the Premiership season.

Big one for Flamini, one of the biggest he has played in, so I hope he does not get over-excited and go for balls he can’t get.

SKY ARE HYPING up this Super Sunday clash as if it’s Borg v McEnroe or Tyson v Holyfield.

In fact, it may just be a football match in December, the 17th of 38 games.

I hope it is just a football match. Not something that creates headlines for the next 14 days.

December 10th 2004.

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THE football season starts in January.

The European Cup starts in February with the Round of 16.

For me, the matches up till Xmas are all pre-season games.

They tell us which teams might win trophies, and which teams cannot win trophies, and which clubs are relegation candidates.

Games up till Xmas sort out the contenders from the also-rans.

And those August-December games always prove my No 1 Golden Rule of Football: this season is not last season.

Last season is irrelevant.

Ancient history. It belongs in the same category as the Beatles, Winston Churchill, the invention of the telephone in 1875, and Julius Caesar.

SUNDAY IS A BIG GAME.And I love big games.

Arsenal v Chelsea is the biggest pre-season game for years.

It should tell us a lot about how Arsenal and Chelsea will do in the Premiership title race.

The champions against last year’s runners-up.

But this is not Claudio Ranieri’s Chelsea. I liked Ranieri’s Chelsea, but I always thought Arsenal could beat them.

In every game against Chelsea, home or away, I fancied Arsenal to win.

But Claudio was Claudio, the incorrigible tinkerer. I thought he would beat Besiktas at the Bridge, put 40 quid on Chelsea, he made five changes, and they lost 2-0.

JOSE MOURINHO is a far better coach than Ranieri.

My brother Paddy came round last night to watch Liverpool 3 Olympiakos 1.

We were saying that Mourinho is as tough as Shankly, Clough and Graham.

SO ARSENAL v CHELSEA is a big game.

It will interesting.

And when I’ve thought about the contest carefully, I’ll do a preview here.

ROSENBORG came for the weekend, went shopping, and failed to turn up at Highbury.

Arsenal’s 5-1 win had a strange atmosphere.

It was farcical. On that performance, QPR would have beaten Rosenborg 1-0.

But Arsenal performed beautifully and won the group.

Hoyte was solid, Flamini was energetic, van Persie was explosive and scored, Reyes was NOT kicked black and blue -and he scored too.

Almunia was at fault for Rosenborg’s goal.

I’m still surprised that Arsene dropped Lehmann. And I still don’t know what it means.

Maybe they will sign Edwin Van der Sar from Fulham in January.

Matchday 6 often sucks.

Like Rosenborg, Roma and Deportivo waved the white flag.

Pride? Competition? Not on Match day 6.

Deportivo lost 0-5 to Monaco.

Roma left out all their goalscorers and lost 0-3 to Real Madrid.

THE ROUND OF 16 starts on February 22nd.

Arsenal will play Real Madrid or Barcelona or Porto or Bayern Munich or Werder Bremen.

Madrid are a team of old superstars.

Barcelona are a team of inside forwards.

Bayern score their goals from crosses and Ballack is back on form.

Bremen have Micoud, a French playmaker.

And Porto’s Benni McCarthy is proving me wrong by scoring big goals in every big game he plays.

And Arsenal are a team of left wingers.

Can a team with five left wingers get to the Champions League semi-final?

It’s original, Arsene. It’s truly audacious.

But nobody gives you credit for the originality of your style of play.

No coach but Arsene Wenger would have Cole, Reyes, Pires, Ljungberg and Henry playing in the same side.

December 9th 2004.