“I know that the attempts to intimidate me on the pitch will start again immediately — but everyone finds sooner or later that it is difficult to make me lose my rag.

“I’ll be booted again but I will not kick out when it happens. I’m tough and, again, it’s all just part of the spectacle.

“I’ll do my damage as usual by paying them all back with my goals.”

Modest words indeed – but then with fans that are prepared to turn a deaf ear over his antics during the summer to gain a move to Real Madrid he probably feels he can say what he likes anyway.

Ferguson is obviously feeling the pressure after a bad start to the season and currently has Berbatov on borderline fitness for Sunday’s clash, Vidic suspended and Ronaldo himself at around 80% fitness.  Chelsea also have Essien missing and Drogba and Ballack still not at full fitness but it’s clear that old Red Nose is worried – why else resort to egging Ronaldo on to make these stupid claims?  Well the answer is that United will go nine points behind their biggest title rivals if they lose at Stamford Bridge on Sunday.

Ferguson is doing all he can to harness the tension to the referee and try and spoil the match as he’s on the back foot - He had a rant this week over Terry’s  suspension being withdrawn and there was the Evra clash with a Chelsea groundsman at the end of last season.  I don’t know why he should be THAT worried – his side as it stands is capable of getting a draw or a win?

Lampard, clearly unaffected by Ronaldo´s ridiculous claims, was more level headed about the Ronaldo situation:

"I don't know what the situation is with him and I'm not too concerned really.

"He's probably the best player in the world, having done what he did last season; you can't take that away from him. If they put him back for our game then we'll have to deal with that.

"We're good enough to deal with Manchester United at their strongest, we shouldn't want them weakened. If they are strong they are strong and we still want to beat them."

"In those days it was us versus them for the league. This year you look at it and Liverpool look stronger and could be challenging, Arsenal as well. It's not a case of us and Manchester United."

"We're confident anyway. It's a game that everyone gets up for regardless of the circumstances. It's nice to go into it with a few goals in the last couple of games we've played. We've got a few days to recover and we'll certainly be ready."

Well, let’s hope that when Ronaldo skips onto the turf in the 65^th minute at Stamford Bridge, that Mavis remains focused and unbiased for the remainder of the match...