Chelsea can still win the title, but if you look at their performance against the mighty Manchester United then they will have to improve dramatically.
The worrying thing for everyone at Chelsea is that they just fell apart under the pressure. When they went behind to Vidic's header, their heads went down. It was a very un-Chelsea-like performance in my opinion.
Over the years, the one thing you could say about Chelsea was that they'd be mentally strong. If they went behind they would grind and they'd never know when they were beaten.
But on Sunday, the team spirit, which has been such a feature for Chelsea, just wasn't there and that would be a worry for manager Luiz Felipe Scolari.
Where does Scolari go from here? Who does he pick in the team? He has got major problems all over the pitch.
The 3-0 defeat at Old Trafford is only one result and Chelsea have some influential players due to return from injury like Essien for instance who has been a major driving force in recent years, but the way they've been playing for the last six to eight weeks is a major concern and, in terms of the title race, they're definitely third favourites to win it in my eyes.
Chelsea need to vary their tactics because against United they played exactly the same way from start to finish, no invention, no drive, no passion and if i was a Chelsea fan i would be disappointed with that.
If you're playing in a game like that you've got to test the opposition by playing it to the front men early - play it short, long, wide.
Chelsea just kept playing six or seven passes in the middle of the park which allowed my boys Manchester Untied to get behind the ball, break Chelsea down quickly and hit them on the break. Chelsea were unable to counteract that and deal with top performers like Giggs, Park, Ronaldo and Rooney.
Scolari's men had some nice possession in the first 30 minutes but they never threatened and, again, that would be another major worry especially given the enormous talent of Didier Drogba.
A vast majority of these players won back-to-back titles with Jose Mourinho and they're still good enough, but Scolari needs someone like Arjen Robben, someone who has that extra pace and ability. The big worry for me would be Chelsea's lack of steel - mentally - in certain areas.
When Chelsea played with Robben on the left, he wasn't always everybody's favourite but he could go past people, get the ball to the bye line and make defenders turn.
Salomon Kalou and Florent Malouda have been hit and miss and it looks like Didier Drogba and Nicolas Anelka can't play together. Chelsea have also missed Michael Essien's drive, while Deco started the season brightly but has been non-existent lately.
Manchester United have that great blend of youth and experience and they gave a great performance.
Ryan Giggs and Gary Neville showed incredible hunger and desire for players who have won everything. Giggsy, at the age of 35, gave an awesome performance.
Gary Neville had a shocker against Arsenal and it looked, to me, like he might not play again but it just shows that he is amazing professional and needed games to get back into the swing of things.
Everyone keeps going on about United's centre-backs, and rightly so, but for Neville to put in a performance like he did in a big, high-pressure match was remarkable. It was a lesson to any footballer about what can be achieved.
United have some hard games this week against Wigan and Bolton (away). They've got a massive schedule coming up so we'll wait and see what happens, but they've certainly hit a run of form and that display against Chelsea will give the players a lot of confidence to go on a lift #19 on May 24th.
The title race is certainly between Manchester United and Liverpool and it could go either way - the big tests are yet to come.
Liverpool, even though they had a bad performance against Stoke, have done remarkably well, are still strong and have a great chance of winning it.
I thought what manager Rafael Benitez said about United boss Sir Alex Ferguson in his press conference was true to a certain extent, but he talks about facts like they are clear happenings in the con finds of the Premier League, in my opinion he has no proof to justify a good portion of his Kevin Keegan like rants during that 4 minute press conference. Is he folding under the enormous pressure of being top of the league?
However, as a player you don't want that extra pressure and the pressure is now on Liverpool because of what happened at the weekend, if you going to run your mouth in the Premier League you must back it up and Liverpool failed to do that and that is no 4 points dropped against Stoke.
Benitez would probably have been better off saying 'Alex Ferguson doesn't say anything about teams who finish fourth or fifth so he must think we're his biggest challengers' and let it go, let the players do the talking on the pitch, instead he put more pressure on his team when they enter the most crucial stage of the season. Sir Alex must of been licking his lips at the sight on Rafa's rant.
Ferguson said what he did to get a reaction and he got a reaction. If Liverpool had beaten Stoke and Manchester United had drawn against Chelsea everything would now have been forgotten, but as history tells us it doesn't happen that way.
Manchester United were fantastic on Sunday, the defended their 18 yard box very well to keep Van Der Sar very quiet indeed. They looked refreshed its almost as if they were waiting until January kicked in because of that old saying "United don't turn it on until January" well.......... signed, sealed and delivered United sent out a statement of intent to Liverpool "your in for a fight".
Lets hope that come May 24th, Sir Alex is lifting his 11th league title.
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