ManU - Our only rivals

When the Arsenal representative was asked he said "Manchester United" and at that I nodded my head sagely in agreement.

The basis for the conclusion drawn by my fellow Gooner on the fans forum will only be known to him but from my point of view, Chelsea will never, EVER be considered as a GENUINE rival to Arsenal.

Why? Well, let's look at this way. Both Arsenal and Manchester United are not just big clubs, they are well run institutions. Why are they institutions? Well, the rich history of success that characterise both clubs invariably stems from DECADES of evolution rather than short term revolution.

The best way of comparing the two clubs at present to Chelsea is a bit like this. Imagine, if you will, two eminently successful highly respected self-made millionaires sitting in an exclusive gentleman's club suddenly having a jumped up layabout thrust upon them that has effectively gate crashed his way into the same club purely on the back of winning the lottery.

Yes, it's true to say that over the years both Arsenal and ManUre have spent a few quid here and there where necessary in the pursuit of glory but you only have look back, for example, to the period Arsenal had between 1989 and 1991 to see that it wasn't always the case.

In that time we won two league titles and what was that team based upon? Home grown players such as Merson, Adams, Davis, Thomas, Martin Hayes (1989) and last but not at all least, the late, great David Rocastle.

The same could be said, of course, of ManUre whose success over the last decade has been built on similar lines. Even if Chelsea do finally manage to win the title over the next few years, will they be able to say that they did it in the same way? Of course not.

Taking things up to board level, there has been a level of continuity and, more importantly, stability at both clubs that there hasn't been at Chelsea.

There have been two generations of the Hill-Wood family at the forefront of Arsenal for well over 40 years. Ah, but what about David Dein, I hear you say? Isn't he the real power behind the Arsenal throne? Well, yes, that is widely regarded to be true but nevertheless he has been part of the Arsenal boardroom set up since 1983.

In fact, Dein arrived at Arsenal not long after Ken "Captain Birds Eye" Bates saved Chelsea from going out of business. Having seen the club go nowhere particularly in the first ten years or so of his tenure, Bates took the bold step of effectively remortgaging the club in the mid-nineties to create more funds, build a better side and stadium and generally raise the club's profile.

A brief spell of relative success followed but by the time this summer and three barren, trophy-less years had gone by, the strong word on the street was that Chelsea were once again a whisker away from going out of business. Has anyone ever heard of Arsenal or ManUre being threatened by such a scenario? Nope, I haven't either.

Then, almost in a puff of smoke, along came the Cossack from the King's Road, Roman Abramovich armed with mountains of cash (and God only knows what else, if you're catching my drift) and the rest as they say is history - or is it?

There is no doubt that the arrival of the Cossack from the Kings Road has put Chelsea on a different plane. There is no doubt that they are the most cash rich club in Europe right now.

Yet, in spite of that, I don't think that there is any doubt that Abramovich could disappear as quickly as he arrived. Can you really see this guy still bankrolling Chelsea 20 years from now?

I think that there is very much a "boys with their toys" syndrome going on here. Sooner or later the novelty will wear off and the press, who have bent over backwards to build up the brave new world at Chelsea, will then start knocking Abramovich and his club down.

Abramovich would then have an excuse to asset strip the club and walk away. Would he think twice about it? Probably not. After all, you don't become as filthy rich as quickly as he has by helping old ladies across the street if you know what I mean.

The reality is that Chelsea, for the foreseeable future, will effectively only ever be 24 hours away from being faced with the scenario I have mapped. Hard-nosed businessmen like Abramovich are not sentimental. He already knows that he could walk away from Stamford Bridge tomorrow if he wanted to knowing full well that he doesn't owe anyone connected to the club anything.

It's interesting how the press and the media revel in billing what is currently a three-horse title race as a fascinating and exciting struggle between "old money" and "new money". I think that their enthusiasm is borne out of desperation given that Arsenal and ManUre have slugged it out for supremacy unopposed for so long.

Ultimately, the heart of the matter is this; Arsenal's rivalry with ManUre may have only intensified in the last seven years but given everything I have said, it's rivalry that is truly authentic. Chelsea, regardless of what they achieve (or not as the case may be) will be no more than an alien entity in the midst of it all.