Claudio Ranieri, who started his career as Chelsea manager with a draw at Manchester United, returns to Old Trafford today bidding to gauge how far his side have to go to catch the big guns.

Although Chelsea won 3-0 in Manchester last season, Ranieri, whose first match in charge of the club at Old Trafford was in September 2000, acknowledges there is still a gap between his side and United and Arsenal.

Chelsea's French midfield star Emmanuel Petit has claimed Chelsea are genuine Premiership title contenders this season but Ranieri refuses to jump on that bandwagon.

The Italian explained: "When my players are so strong and so confident I am very pleased. To fight for the title is our ambition but I think Chelsea must go step by step.

"Now we are fighting for the top four places. Arsenal are too far ahead at the moment but Liverpool and Manchester are near us. Of course we want to try to win and pip them."

But while appreciating things are definitely moving in the right direction, he also declines to compare the side he has built with the successful, but ageing, team he inherited.

Ranieri continued: "I have changed many players from my first game. In that first game I gave some instructions but now it is my team. That team was full of champions and won a lot of trophies, but this team is new and we are working hard to try and win again.

"It is not good to compare a team who won everything except the title with a team which is young and trying to do something. But I am very pleased with our consistency this year."

When he first arrived, Ranieri said he wanted his team to be like Manchester United in order to win the championship and still feels they are the team to which his players must aspire.

He added: "The big teams are the target. United won the title seven times in the last 10 years - that's fantastic - and Arsenal won it twice. I'd like to put Chelsea up there to fight with those two teams. That is my ambition.

"I have a lot of respect for Manchester and Arsenal. They are the best teams in Europe and I want to get there.

"I am positive but realistic. The gap has closed but at the end of the season I want to see how many points we have, and then we can see exactly how much we have done."

But Ranieri insists he is happy with the progress his team is making and was quick to play down speculation that he could lose striker Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink to Barcelona.

He said: "I'm used to listening to all the rumours but I don't know anything. I think Jimmy is one of the players everyone wants. All the bigger teams want a killer man, a striker like Jimmy."

Meanwhile, Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson has pinpointed Gianfranco Zola as Chelsea's biggest threat.

"Zola has missed the last couple of games but I'm sure he will come back," Ferguson told reporters yesterday. "He is a tremendous professional. An example to all players.

"He's 36 years of age and showing an enthusiasm and the ability to play at the level he is. It's terrific."

Despite Zola's goalscoring talents, the United manager is predicting a tense affair with few goals. "They are third in the league and have brought more consistency to their game this year," he added. "It is not going to be as open a game as many might think. I don't think there will be a lot of goals."