GIVEN the outstanding talent of Wayne Rooney, it is not inconceivable that when Chelsea visit Old Trafford tomorrow, Manchester United could be celebrating victory after the odd moment of magic from their boy wonder.

But even if he does, it is hard to imagine that the three points will signal the start of a revival of gargantuan proportions and that United will suddenly pick themselves up out of a hole to compete with Chelsea for the title again.

Any footballer, at any level, should find it easy to motivate themselves for a fixture against the reigning Premiership champions. United's hurting and sulking stars should be no different.

In fact, bearing in mind the once mighty Red Devils suddenly find themselves so far behind the Blues with just 11 games played, the whole of Sir Alex Ferguson's playing staff should be out to prove a point or two.

The midweek defeat to Lille in the Champions League further highlighted a club in crisis. If ever there was a time to dismiss the old 'never write off United' line it is now.

As well as being 13 points adrift of Chelsea ahead of tomorrow's meeting between the old and new guard, Manchester United are on the verge of failing to qualify from the Champions League group stage for the first time since 1994.

Failure to emerge from Group D, more than a distinct possibility after the 1-0 defeat in the Stade de France, would cost the club an estimated £2m - something that would not go down well with the Glazer family.

Having bought the club for £790m in May, by borrowing £374m to achieve their takeover, the American business tycoons will be starting to raise serious question marks, not only over the future of many of the club's stars but Ferguson himself.

This weekend marks his 19th year in charge at Old Trafford and, even if all the points are forthcoming against Jose Mourinho's men, tomorrow night is unlikely to be a time for celebration.

Having been so used to glory during the majority of those two decades at the helm, Ferguson knows victory over the Premiership's new frontrunners will go nowhere near to covering the cracks that have appeared in recent times.

During a week when Mourinho and Arsene Wenger have been at loggerheads over who called who what, the 'United in Crisis' story has developed into a much deeper tale than tit-for-tat.

Roy Keane's outspoken criticism of at least five of his team-mates - Alan Smith, John O'Shea, Kieran Richardson, Liam Miller and Darren Fletcher - on the club's in-house television channel emphasised that morale at the Theatre of Dreams is at sinking point.

The club's Irish skipper may be injured but for him to come out and name names when outlining the reasons behind United's rapid decline just served to further widen an already divided pack.

It was claimed yesterday that Ferguson - who banned the tape from being broadcast on Monday night, just 24 hours after United's capitulation at Middlesbrough - showed the whole squad Keane's to-the-point comments on Thursday, before delivering a rousing speech in a bid to bring the group closer together.

All may be not well at Chelsea, they were dethroned themselves from the top of their own Champions League group in midweek, but they can count themselves lucky they are not in United's state.

It is quite incredible that, at a time when Old Trafford is having building work done to increase capacity to 75,000, it is more on the playing side of things that the work-in-progress signs need to go up.

Otherwise a bigger, and supposedly better, Old Trafford will seem an eerie place, while Ferguson's hopes of popping open one of his cherished bottles of wine on his 20th anniversary at the club may never arrive.