Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson insists he never said that Chelsea's current team was 'past it'.

"I can clarify [those comments] quite easily," he said.

"Ask the English journalists what they did with the story - they put a headline on it and it ends up embarrassing you.

"What I said was that Chelsea are a very experienced team, and when players get to their 30s you don't expect a big improvement from them.

"I also said they will be a big challenge to us, as will the other two clubs [Arsenal and Liverpool]. I don't think there's much between the top four clubs."