Teams must not be fazed by Chelsea charge, says O’Shea
The 23-year-old believes it is vital Chelsea’s opponents do not become fazed when facing Jose Mourinho’s team.
The leaders look unstoppable in their bid to win their first League Championship for 50 years - and will enter the new year holding a nine-point lead over third-placed United.
The Red Devils are doing their best to turn up the pressure and Tuesday’s win at Aston Villa means they have taken 22 points from the last eight games.
But O’Shea knows it will be harder to catch Chelsea if their opponents have a defeatist attitude.
He said: “With our current run, it is frustrating that Chelsea keep winning as well but if we keep winning our games there’s no more that can be asked of us.
“What we’ve just got to hope is that the other teams are not fazed at all about the prospect of playing Chelsea in their current form.
“You really do have to hope they don’t have the feeling of being beaten before they’ve played against them.”
O’Shea was a key figure in the move which led to man-of-the-match Ryan Giggs grabbing the only goal at Villa Park to keep United in touch with Chelsea.
He admitted: “It was a very important win. We thought maybe Chelsea were going to drop a couple of points at Portsmouth earlier in the day which would have helped.
“But they had a good result and we’ve got to worry about ourselves, keep winning and eventually something might happen for us.
“When you know Chelsea have won before you play, it does add a bit of pressure. But if they had dropped points, then maybe there is more pressure.
“When that does happen there is going to be huge pressure on us to capitalise. But with the players we have, we’re going to be able to cope with that.”
United midfielder Darren Fletcher admitted there is no guarantee Chelsea will eventually have the dip in form that most are predicting.
But he believes how Chelsea cope with the pressure of being favourites is crucial to the title outcome.
He said: “Will Chelsea have a blip? Who knows? They might not have a blip. We are just hoping they drop points. We’ve still got to play them as well at Old Trafford and a lot of big games coming up.
“It’s been said that Chelsea haven’t had a blip and they might end up not having a blip, We just have to concentrate on our own stuff and make sure we are winning games.
“Being favourites will be something new to Chelsea. They finished second last year but they haven’t led the league before.
“Arsenal and Manchester United have done that in the past and coped. It is a new kind of pressure for them.
“But they are doing well enough now. We don’t want it to continue but fair play to them. Hopefully the blip will happen.”
Giggs would appear to offer United most hope of overturning Chelsea’s sizeable advantage - a sharp contrast to when his performances came in for criticism from some fans earlier in the campaign.
Fletcher said: “His performances are always unbelievable. We see that all the time in training and when he is on form like this he is hard to beat and one of the best players in the world.
“You wouldn’t believe he is 31 and he doesn’t play like he is 31 and his fitness levels aren’t of a 31-year-old.
“The way he plays is all about dribbling and that’s what you associate with young kids and he wants to take people on, create chances and score goals and he has been unbelievable.
“Defences will be terrified of him in that form. We’ve seen him do it over 10 to 12 years. On form there is no player any defence like playing against less than Ryan Giggs.
“It was disappointing when you heard that criticism earlier in the season because Ryan has been a great servant to this club, one of the all-time great players at Manchester United, but it happens in football.”
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