Jose calls truce but they'll manage to wind each other up

Individually, they may be anything but most people's idea of a couple of dames, yet you can't help but cast them as football's Dr Evadne Hinge and Dame Hilda Bracket. What would a Premiership title race be without the acidic and occasionally witty repartee of Sir Alex Ferguson and Jose Mourinho, their pre-match jousting laced with barbed reflections on each other's teams and modes of management?

But no more, apparently. As Mourinho ventures into uncharted territory - the first time he has started a fourth season with the same club - he has reinvented himself as the Mellow One, dedicated to enhancing his standing among his peers and the public and improving the entertainment from his team. Ferguson has claimed to welcome the transition.

Still, it takes some believing that there will be a self- administered gag in the Mourinho mouth, or any reduction in Ferguson's irascibility during a season in which the rivalry promises to be as sustained as ever. Already the pointed asides have begun, the Chelsea manager claiming that the pressure in now on Ferguson, who has responded that: "There was more pressure on me when I was signing players at the start of my time at Old Trafford."

Should Mourinho manage not only to usurp Ferguson as title- winner but also produce a team who at last endear themselves aesthetically, one can only imagine the effect on Ferguson. The shifting of the tectonic plates of indignation will register high on the Richter scale.

For now, though, Ferguson could scarcely be in better humour as he begins his 20th full season in charge of United with what he insists is his strongest-ever squad. Apart from the Carlos Tevez saga, now concluded, his other acquisitions - Owen Hargreaves, Portugal's "best young footballer" Nani and the Brazilian midfielder Anderson - were finalised early. "When you come to this club, it's not a matter of whether the fire dies down in the summer, because there is always something happening," he says. "But probably this summer is the first I've had a holiday when I didn't need to worry about signing a player."

However, as Ferguson seeks to secure a 10th title in 15 seasons and, by doing so, deny Mourinho his third in four, the Scot, for all his protestations to the contrary, would privately acknowledge that there has been a subtle exchange of perceptions and expectations during the summer. This season, it is the "big-spending" Manchester United manager who has to justify an outlay of more than [pound]50 million. Chelsea, for once, have been almost parsimonious.

If the Blues do prevail, could it be that we have heard the last of that refrain of contempt: "Chelsea have bought the title."? It's as unlikely as the world learning to love Mourinho & Co, probably. That will require time, and some exhilarating perform-ances from his men. Yet no one would dispute that Chelsea 2007 look less like the bunch of mercenaries he inherited from the Tinkerman, Claudio Ranieri.

Just [pound]13m has been spent at Stamford Bridge, to procure Florent Malouda. The Frenchman is designed to be an integral component of Mourinho's promised more expansive approach, returning to the 4-3-3 system that he used to favour, when the flowing Dutchman Arjen Robben and Damien Duff, the dashing Irishman, often proved the undoing of their opponents.

Otherwise, Mourinho islargely reliant upon free transfers. It suggests he is content with his squad. And so he should be, just as long as he can contrive to avoid another season of over-dependency on Didier Drogba. Despite United's acquisitions, Chelsea's midfield still compares well with the champions', as does their rearguard, assuming the fitness of John Terry. Not for the first time in his career, United's Rio Ferdinand was physically vulnerable in Sunday's Community Shield, and, though Ferguson commends his partnership with Nemanja Vidic as containing "pace, strength and good balance", he pointedly adds: "Iexpect more authority from Vida."

There is a continuity about Mourinho's squad. They now have the appearance of a team (with the possible exception of Andriy Shevchenko and Michael Ballack, both of whose presence reputedly has more to do with Roman Abramovich's wishes) who have evolved under him. If he can resolve how best todeploy Malouda, Salomon Kalou, Joe Cole, Shaun Wright-Phillips and Robben (if he remains), and if Chelsea can keep pace early on with their deadliest rivals,a third championship for Mourinho is in the offing.

While Mourinho is presented with a dilemma regarding his attacking formation, Ferguson's acquisition of Tevez is no less problematic. Certainly the Scot has added potency to hisforward line, already boasting Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney, although again he demands "improvement" from that pair. Yet, since Ferguson jettisoned Ruud van Nistelrooy, there remains no target man. It will be intriguing to discover how the manager utilises three players who all prefer to be deployed behind a front man.

Ultimately, it is Hargreaves who could be United's most important addition, providing midfield security in Europe, which, one suspects, remains the priority for Ferguson, just as it does for Mourinho. That, and the pleasure for both of overcoming the character who, whatever the progress of ArseneWenger and Rafa Benitez, remains their deadliest rival... one for whom respect still exists, and with whom a bottle of claret is shared, despite, on occasions, those darts of derision which are part of folklore.

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