IT'S half-term at Chelsea's training ground, next to the Heathrow flight-path, and the demand for autographs is high. The three Italian stars stand outside the pavilion, patiently dealing with the swarms of children. You can actually read every letter of each "Di Matteo" dutifully inscribed on the scraps of paper or replica shirts by the trio's youngest member.

The manager strolls over. Quietly, carefully, firmly, he shepherds the children back behind the barrier, touching them gently on the shoulder, encouraging them to observe the etiquette, to respond to his good manners with their own. Then he stands there himself for 20 minutes, wielding a pen until every request has been satisfied.

Rudd Gullit is presiding over the first Chelsea side since the days of Osgood and Hudson to command the affection of enlightened neutrals, and the atmosphere created by the civilised behaviour of the manager and his staff is not the least of the reasons. Many of those neutrals are also in the habit of showing an interest in the fortunes of Manchester United, which is why the meetings between the two clubs once again carry the degree of expectation aroused in the days when George Best and Ron Harris faced each other in the red and the blue.

For Gullit and his players, today's fixture represents one of the season's bigger days whichever way you look at it. United, on top of the table, beat Arsenal at Highbury on Wednesday playing as if already in overdrive for the final sprint. Today they face Chelsea who lie in sixth place, 12 points behind United and with two games in hand, but still nursing the memory of the carelessly surrendered 2-0 lead at Filbert Street on Sunday, forcing a Cup replay into their schedule.

In last season's version of today's fixture, United's four goals swamped the one scored by their old boy, Mark Hughes. But at Old Trafford earlier this year Chelsea resumed their run of satisfactory results against Alex Ferguson's champions, Vialli and Duberry scoring in a 2-1 win. Now Gullit wants to see if his team can confirm their right to be considered among the authentic challengers to United's grip on the title.

"I don't think you measure yourself against other teams," he said when invited to compare the two sides. "You measure your progress over the season, and I think we've made some big steps during this championship. United have always been favourites because they won the title last season, but they're looking differently at Chelsea now, that's for sure."

It is, after all, a different Chelsea. The team had spent the middle of this week in Italy, where they went down 2-0 to AC Milan in a friendly match at San Siro, once Gull it's own stage, both sides starting the game with their first- line selections before taking the chance to blood a bunch of teenagers in the second half. But the manager denied that he had been on a shopping trip. "Shopping with my girlfriend, yes. Shopping for players, no. 1 approached no one.

He admitted his recent failure to land Ajax's Patrick Kluivert, who chose to follow Gullit's example and will start next season with Milan. How about Paul Ince, allegedly keen to return to London? "I have no interest in Paul Ince., I already have a similar player in Eddie Newton, and I'm very happy with him. If you have two players of this type, you might experience the same thing that happened to England against Italy." Meaning Glenn Hoddle's decision to pair Ince with a second holding midfield player, David Batty.

In the absence of the suspended Eric Cantona, both Gullit and Mark Hughes identified Peter Schmeichel - enmeshed in midweek controversy - as United's key player. "Last year he was the man who won the championship for them," Gullit said. "The opposition can get a lot of chances, but he makes the vital save. It's his presence. He makes people miss."

Hughes, too, needed no encouragement to sing the praises of United's goalkeeper. "He's a big man in stature and in character. He's gets emotional, but that's just part of his make-up. He's a winner. Alex Ferguson used to say to us, `Just look around the dressing room and see who you're sitting next to and be thankful that they're on your side.' When you look across and see big Peter, you think, well, if they do get through, they've still got to get past him."

Today's match, Hughes suggested, could unlock the rest of the season. "If we don't get any kind of result, it's going to be difficult for us to make a challenge. It would be hard to catch them. We're all aware of how big the game is and we're all looking forward to it."

His club captain agreed. "Everyone wants us to do well against Man United," Dennis Wise said, "because it opens things up and gives the other teams a chance. And we know how to play against them. We've got a set pattern and we've got to stick by it. If we do, we're capable of getting the result we need.