LUIZ FELIPE Scolari had a stark warning for his Chelsea players after a defeat he admitted had inflicted "very big damage" on their hopes of returning the Premier League title to Stamford Bridge.

"If we play like this again, we will not win [the championship]," the manager conceded.

The defeat means Chelsea have won only one of their past five league games and taken 10 points out of 24 on offer. "We have 16 or 17 games left and we have a lot of thinking to do," said Scolari.

"Have we lost everything or are we men who can improve? Respond in the first way and we are dead. Maybe I am not the man for this and neither are my players. They have to think about what has happened in the last four or five games and think about the future and about us. But we know if we play like this again we won't arrive where we want to be."

Scolari questioned whether some of his players were "not in a good condition mentally" but he reiterated he would not go into the January transfer market. "I don't want any more players," he said. "I've got good players. I will go with these players and we'll go to the top or we'll go down. But these are my players - finished."

The victory means United can replace Liverpool at the top of the league if they win their two matches before Rafael Benitez's team face Everton a week today. "I'm not going to say anything more [about his rift with Benitez] because at this moment we should just concentrate on chasing Liverpool," said Ferguson.

"We have got games in hand, so we want to try and catch them up. We have got all the other main teams at home now and we really need to win those games. We have got the first one out of the way. Now we have Wigan on Wednesday, who are playing fantastically well, and then Bolton, which is always a tough game, so there are a lot of interesting matches for us in the next few weeks. January is a big month for us but we have got the squad and hopefully we can cope."

Ferguson's demeanour was in stark contrast to that of Scolari, who was visibly aggrieved after witnessing the heaviest defeat of his Chelsea reign.

The Brazilian also had to answer questions about his club's supporters taunting Cristiano Ronaldo over Thursday's car crash with chants of "You should have died in the tunnel".

"I don't know what they sung because my focus was the game. But when I looked at the crash and saw the car I said to myself, 'You have to pray every day for God and say thank you for life because life is fantastic.'

"Ronaldo is young. God has given him a lesson and I think that he needs to stay alive until he is 90."

Scolari said he had felt no extra pressure from the presence in the crowd of Jose Mourinho, who won two titles while in charge of Chelsea.

"Mourinho is an intelligent man," he said. "He didn't come here to tell me he loves me."