Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson says it would be wrong to dismiss Chelsea’s chances of winning the Premier League this season.

United, along with local rivals Manchester City, hold a 100% record after four games and meet Chelsea at Old Trafford on Sunday.

“Chelsea will be there at the end of the season,” Ferguson said.

“The Manchester teams are enjoying the publicity but Chelsea are lurking and will enjoy not being in the spotlight.”

The Blues have made an unbeaten start to the campaign and lie third in the table, two points behind United and City.

United beat Chelsea 2-1 in the corresponding fixture last season, but in 18 Premier League matches at Old Trafford, United have won six, Chelsea have won five and there have been seven draws.

Ferguson expects another tight encounter at the weekend.

“It will be a fantastic game,” Ferguson said.

“The games between both sides over the last seven years have been very close affairs.

“There is usually just one goal in it and it will be very tight on Sunday again.”

Ferguson, who celebrates his 70th birthday on 31 December, will face new Chelsea manager Andre Villas-Boas, who is 36 years his junior.

The Scot said he was impressed with the start his Portuguese counterpart has made at Stamford Bridge.

“For a young man who has come to Chelsea, it is a great challenge,” he added.

“It is a hard challenge at his age but when you go to a new club, you hope you get an immediate response. He has got that.

“They are a team with great experience and they will always be a challenge to us.”

Elsewhere Liverpool travel to Tottenham Hotspur on the back of a cruel defeat at Stoke last week when they went down 1-0 despite dominating the game.

But the Liverpool manager says he has been more than satisfied with his side’s start.

“The performances have been very, very good so far,” said Dalglish. “It’s only 45 minutes in the second half [in the 1-1 draw] against Sunderland – that is the least effective we’ve been.

“But it was by no way, shape or form a bad performance by us though. We’ve been happy with the way the players have gone about their work.

“With a little bit of luck we could have been sitting there with more points but we’ll just get on with it.”

Both those matches take place on Sunday. On Saturday Blackburn host, Arsenal, Aston Villa play Newcastle, Norwich travel to Bolton, Everton play Wigan, Swansea travel to West Brom while Wolves host QPR.