Ahead of Sunday's blockbuster against United, Chelsea boss Villas-Boas leaves the tackling to the players

Chelsea manager Andre Villas-Boas insists he has no intention of playing mind games with Sir Alex Ferguson and the rest of the Premier League's top bosses.



Villas-Boas will go head to head with Ferguson for the first time on Sunday when Chelsea visit Old Trafford for the kind of high stakes fixture that often triggered verbal sparring between managers when his mentor Jose Mourinho was in charge of the Blues. "I don't see any reason to play mind games," he said.

"That is why I took care in reading Ferguson's full press conference before this match. "I knew what he said before I came here (to speak to the press) and he didn't say anything disrespectful.

"During my time with Mourinho at Chelsea we won two Premier Leagues, but in the end what was the importance of all the mind games? "I don't think it had any effect on the players," he said.

Head to head in EPL
Matches: 19
Drawn: 7
Man United won: 7
Chelsea won: 5

Last five clashes
Man Utd 2-1 Chelsea (EPL)
Man Utd 2-1 Chelsea (CL)
Chelsea 0-1 Man Utd (CL)
Chelsea 2-1 Man Utdu00a0 (EPL)
Chelsea 1-3 Man Utd (FACS)

Man Utd's form
Benfica 1-1 Man Utd (CL)
Bolton 0-5 Man Utd (EPL)
Man Utd 8-2 Arsenal (EPL)
Man Utd 3-0 Tottenham
West Brom 1-2 Man Utd

Chelsea's form
Chelsea 2-0 Bayer (CL)
S'land 1-2 Chelsea (EPL)
Chelsea 3-1 Norwich (EPL)
Chelsea 2-1 WBA (EPL)
Stoke 0-0 Chelsea (EPL)