Sport: Neville warns United, City and Arsenal not to fall behind Mourinho's Chelsea.

As Jose Mourinho and his squad trained in the Bangkok heat, former Manchester United star Gary Neville has warned Chelsea's Premier League rivals that they cannot fall behind the Blues.

Chelsea are preparing for their first pre-season tour game on Wednesday against the Singha All-Stars and there is a real belief that the return of Mourinho will make them title challengers once more.


Mail on Sunday columnist and Sky Sports pundit Neville said: 'You wouldn’t want to fall too far behind a Mourinho team because they would have the nerve to withstand the pressure. When he first came in, in 2004-05, we played against him on the first day.

'We’d had the experience the year before when he’d charged down the touchline and gone on to pick up the European Cup with Porto. He’d already made a name for himself. But that first season, he had an absolutely brilliant team at Chelsea.

Mourinho says he will focus on youth during his 'second coming' at Chelsea and there are plenty of youngsters in the touring squad.

One older character, new signing Mark Schwarzer, is yet to join up with the troops but is expected to arrive on Sunday.

Along with Andre Schurrle and Marko van Ginkel, he is the third signing of a busy start to the summer for Chelsea.

If they can sign a world-class striker they will arguably be favourites for the title and Neville remembers the last time Chelsea were England's dominant side.

He added: 'From our point of view at United, it was probably our leanest period in not winning the league from 2004-07. Going back there now, Mourinho’s got a greater challenge, but Chelsea are on the up. Everyone could see that at the end of last season.

'They won the Champions League the year before, won a trophy last season, finished strongly in the league. They’re going to be a huge threat. Where we lost out to Mourinho teams at United in those early years was we left ourselves too much to do.

'We weren’t slow starters but we weren’t at our peak form September to December. We got into our stride in January, February, March and on.

'The problem in the Mourinho years was we were too far behind to mount a challenge. So the critical thing this time will be to make sure you stay in contention.'