Sir Alex Ferguson asked his Manchester United team to give an honor guard to Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea in 2005 because he wanted his players to feel the real pain of losing the Premier League title, Phil Neville revealed.
Mourinho’s arrival at Chelsea in 2004 was the biggest test for United’s Premier League dominance that Ferguson experienced during his 26 years at Old Trafford.
Although Arsenal won three league titles between 1998 and 2004, no team had reached the heights reached by Chelsea in 2005 and 2006 and Ferguson admitted that Portuguese methods had forced him to reassess his principles at the Theater of Dreams.
Mourinho’s team got into the habit of hitting the ground by racing in the Premier League, mocking Ferguson’s belief that his united team only needed to be a short distance from the top spot going home for a chance to win the title.
Ferguson on how Mourinho forced him to change his methods
‘Psychologically that was a great time for Chelsea [winning the first title]. They had won the League for the first time in half a century and could see each other in another light. One lesson we took was that slow starts could no longer be tolerated if we had faced Chelsea, our new big challengers.‘
However, Chelsea’s sensational start meant that they had been home and dry since April and racked up a record 95 points, ending 18 points above the Red Devils.
It was Chelsea’s first title in half a century and their first away game after winning the title against Bolton at the Reebok stadium was at Old Trafford.
United was therefore forced to give the part of Mourinho an honor guard, in what would have been touted as a symbolic symbol of the passage of power from Old Trafford to Stamford Bridge.
When, on May 10, 2005, we put together an honor guard for Chelsea, the new champions, we had no intention of surrendering to Abramovich’s wealth in the coming months. – Sir Alex Ferguson
Much has been done if United would have gone ahead with the guard of honor, but Phil Neville says that Ferguson was determined on his side because he did it “having fun” making them suffer from the fact that they had given up their grip on the title.
“I remember that at Old Trafford we had to be the guard of honor in our Chelsea patch and it was almost as if Sir Alex had a good time,” Neville told Premier League Productions.
‘It was like “This will hurt you, see a team that got your title come out of your stadium and you have to applaud them.”
‘It was almost like a motivation [tactic] for the next season to make sure it didn’t happen again. That’s how we used it.
‘In the end you have to give respect to the best team in the league with the best coach and the best players by giving them that honor guard. I think it’s something that should only be done out of respect for the team that won the championship. ‘
Chelsea exhausted the winners of the evening 3-1, further affirming their dominance over Ferguson’s United team with an emphatic display.
United was in transition at the time with the likes of Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo still years away from their peak, while previously influential players such as Ruud van Nistelrooy and Roy Keane had surpassed theirs.
If Ferguson was using the guard of honor as a means of motivating his team in the seasons to come, then it definitely worked, as the Scotsman developed his fourth big team at the Theater of Dreams to win the title for the first time in four years in 2007.
Ironically, Chelsea was then forced to give United an honor guard on the Stamofrd bridge at the end of that campaign.
Ferguson’s team had already finished the title and had a British Cup final against the Blues to prepare, so Chelsea gave an honor guard to a very weakened United team that included the likes of Chris Eagles, Dong Fangzhuo and Kieran Lee.
Manchester City are ready to give Liverpool champions an honor guard when the Reds arrive at Etihad as Premier League title winners for the first time on Thursday.
Jurgen Klopp insisted this week that City doesn’t “need” to give Liverpool an honor guard, but Neville insists it’s a sign of respect.
‘I think it should happen. It’s a sign of respect for a team that has been fantastic, ‘said Neville.
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