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John Terry insists Manchester United could yet bottle it in the Barclays Premier League title race, starting against his Chelsea side on Tuesday.

Chelsea have all but surrendered their mantle of English champions, having slipped back to fifth place in the table, 12 points behind long-time leaders United.

But captain Terry has vowed to fight to the bitter end and reckons beating United at Stamford Bridge next week would help sow the seeds of doubt in the minds of their perennial title rivals.

Terry acknowledges the chances of Chelsea retaining their crown are “really small” but he is well aware 12-point leads have been frittered away before at this stage of a season, not least by United themselves in 1998, as well as by Newcastle two years earlier.

“It’s been done. Man United did it to Newcastle many years ago,” the England defender said. “It’s possible and a little bit of pressure.

“Even those games at the end of last year, us knowing we needed to win, there’s an awful lot of pressure on those games,” said Terry, whose side won a vital title decider against United last April. Going to Old Trafford and winning can only do us the world of good in years to come and this year.”

United have lost only one of their 26 league games all season, although they have dropped plenty of points away from home, winning just three of 12 matches. Terry said: “At times, we see that they can be beaten, they can be got at.

“They’re certainly not invincible. Blackpool, they got in their faces and did very well for 60, 70 minutes. But what did show, once again, was their experience. That experience, we’ve also got here as well. They’re a very good side but I don’t think anybody should be fearful of them.”

Branding Tuesday’s match “must-win”, he added: “Who knows what game plan they’re going to come down with? They’re playing well, so they’ll probably be confident of coming down and getting something, which will hopefully suit us.”

Terry reckons they are now ready to rescue their ailing league campaign. “We’ve been there, we’ve seen it, we’ve done it, we’ve got the t-shirt,” he said. “When we do go on a bad run, people pinpoint the age.

“But what we have got is an awful lot of experience, a lot of trust in each other and belief that we can still do it. Look at last year as well, the experience we showed last year in a lot of big games in the run-in.

“We went away to Liverpool, went away to Man United and won very big games – which proved to be very crucial in us doing the double.”

Terry agreed with manager Ancelotti that United would be facing a Chelsea side now boasting a forward line to be feared all over Europe with new £50 million man Fernando Torres joining Didier Drogba and Nicolas Anelka.

“To play against them must put the fear into defenders,” he said. “The two guys who started, showing their pace, playing on people’s shoulders, there’s probably none better in the league. Hopefully this is the start of them all clicking together.”

He added of Torres: “The only thing that was missing from his performance was a goal. It would’ve been very nice for him, but he played a massive part in our performance.”

And Terry would not be surprised at all to see the Spaniard finally break his duck against United, adding: “We hope so. It’d be an ideal time, and what a way to get going.”

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Wesley Sneijder believes Inter deserved to beat Bayern Munich after seeing Mario Gomez snatch a late 1-0 victory at the San Siro.

In a re-run of last year’s final, Bayern made a positive impression against the reigning champions, with Franck Ribery and Arjen Robben both hitting the post before Gomez took advantage of a Julio Cesar error late on.

The away goal leaves Inter with a huge task ahead of the second leg but, having been frustrated by what he considers an unfair result, Sneijder is determined to turn things round in Germany.

“We deserved the victory,” he told RAI. “We deserved to win – we played well and created a lot of chances – but the reality is that we lost, even if it’s not over yet.

“We all knew they had quality players, especially in attack. We did well – we just lacked goals. In Munich it will be difficult, but it’s not over.”

Inter boss Leonardo refused to blame his goalkeeper for the result.

“Julio Cesar has no need to apologise,” he said. “There were many chances in this game and it’s part of the sport. He parried it and the goal could’ve come in other moves, just as we had the opportunities to score.

“It’s true that this loss is even more disappointing because it came right at the end, but it’s all wide open for me, as we played on level terms tonight.”

Inter’s defeat followed home losses for AC Milan and Roma in the Champions League, but Leonardo dismissed suggestions Italy was falling behind other countries.

“Serie A sides remain competitive, as I didn’t see any enormous difference and the competition remains very balanced. We’ll go to Munich with optimism and the desire to go through.”

Bayern boss Louis van Gaal said he had been surprised by Inter’s attacking approach during the game.

“It was an entertaining match with many scoring opportunities,” he said. “Perhaps we created a few more, so I am satisfied, then at the death we got a bit of luck. I really liked the second-half performance, as Inter worked hard without achieving much and we held possession well.

“Inter surprised me, as they played a very attacking and creative style of football, but our goalkeeper, Thomas Kraft, also had a great game.”

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Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has confirmed Theo Walcott sprained his ankle in the 1-0 win over Stoke and will miss Sunday’s Carling Cup final against Birmingham.

Walcott was bundled over by Dean Whitehead on the edge of the box in the 68th minute, but referee Peter Walton waved play on. The 21-year-old stayed on the ground, clearly in pain, before being carried off on a stretcher to be replaced by Denilson.

“He has an ankle sprain and he is out for how long I cannot tell you, for Sunday he is definitely out,” Wenger said.

The Frenchman also said Cesc Fabregas suffered a hamstring injury and will be assessed by the club on Thursday, having lasted just 14 minutes before being replaced by Andrey Arshavin.

”Fabregas is a hamstring problem, we will assess tomorrow, tonight it is impossible to say how serious,” he added. ”It is of course a concern that he [Fabregas] is injured but it happens unfortunately. He was very upset. I am as well. But it is not his fault or mine. It is part of sport. ‘It’s strange when it happens early in the game but we have to face it. We did the job after that in a very professional way.”

Fabregas took to Twitter to vow he would do his utmost to be fit for the final.

He wrote: “I dont know if I’ll make Sunday or not, but all I know is that from this moment to Sunday 16:30 I won’t sleep if it’s necessary. I’ve waited too long to captain a final for Arsenal and I won’t give up till the last second.”

Wenger also believes that his side showed a maturity tonight that has been lacking since he last won a league championship in 2004.

”I think we have matured, certainly, because we won a game tonight when we were less creative and fluent, with intelligence and calm and that is what has changed,” he said. ”One or two years ago we would have dropped points. Tonight they said they couldn’t make mistakes. We must take a lot of credit because of that.”

The result came as a relief after Sunday’s 1-1 draw against Leyton Orient and Wenger urged his team to now kick on in the league.

”This kind of wins shows that your team is really hungry for success,” he added. ”We were less sharp on the creative side but you could tell that my side didn’t want to make a mistake and that was a very positive sign for me.”

Potters boss Tony Pulis was proud of the way his 10th-placed team held their own and was upset not to have grabbed a point.

”For the first 10 minutes we looked like rabbits in headlights,” Pulis said. ”They looked like scoring from any phase of play and it looked as though it was going to be a long night. Gradually we got into the game and we were desperately disappointed not to get something from it in the end.”

The home crowd booed Stoke captain Ryan Shawcross every time he touched the ball because of the leg-breaking tackle he made on Gunners midfielder Aaron Ramsey at the Britannia Stadium this time last year.

This was the first time the two clubs had met since the game and Pulis was delighted with the way that the defender performed.

”He did smashing. I was really pleased with Ryan tonight,” Pulis said. ”He didn’t do anything wrong tonight. The incident with Ramsey was very unfortunate for two young players, for Ramsey because of the injury, and for Ryan too because of the tag he will have against him because of the tackle but he has just got on with his job.”

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Manchester United will have no safety net at Old Trafford in three weeks’ time after they ground out a goalless draw in their Champions League last-16 first leg meeting with Marseille at the Stade Velodrome.

United have failed to clinch victory from similar positions before.

However, they will still be favourites to progress against a limited Marseille outfit, even if life would have been so much better for the visitors had a Darren Fletcher snap-shot been able to break the deadlock in a drab contest.

Ferguson sprang a pre-match surprise when he opted to select Darron Gibson ahead of Paul Scholes. Presumably, the United boss was looking to utilise Gibson’s extra energy in midfield, where he had already been deprived of Anderson and Park Ji-sung, two of seven first-team stars to miss the trip.

To that end, the Irishman did his job during a pretty poor first half.

However, given that shooting from long-range is such a significant part of Gibson’s game, it was strange that he should elect to pass rather than go for goal after an intricate move had set him up on the angle of the penalty area.

It was one of the few moments of invention as United treated what appeared to be limited opponents with caution.

Brandao went for goal with an overhead kick after taking Gabriel Heinze’s cross down on his chest. However, not only was the Brazilian’s effort nothing like Wayne Rooney’s wonder strike, it didn’t even match that of Crawley’s Matt Tubbs at Old Trafford on Saturday.

After making his peace with Ferguson and United yesterday with his contrite admission of regret, Heinze engaged in a running battle with in-form Nani that he just about emerged on top from.

The Portugal winger did blaze one early effort over and he was involved in United’s best chance of the half.

It was not in the way he would have wanted though as his woeful corner was only half-cleared to Fletcher.

The Scot had little time to pick his spot. But the shot was clean enough and as it left his boot, keeper Steve Mandanda initially appeared wrong-footed. Mandanda is clearly blessed with quick feet though, and was able to get back in position to make the save before the ball crossed his goal-line.

Marseille offered little evidence of how they won the French title last season.

It eventually came at the start of the second period, when Lucho Gonzalez seized on Berbatov’s failure to control deep inside the United half and whipped over a curling cross for Brandao, whose firm header was directed straight at Edwin Van der Sar.

Marseille drew confidence from that effort though and pressed forward, with Andre Ayew in the thick of the action.

The Ghana international started with an attempted volley that he smashed high in the air.

Ayew then had a shot blocked before a kind bounce from Lucho’s deflected effort provided a clear sight at goal.

The angle was not great though and with Brandao charging in at the far-post, Ayew seemed caught in two minds and in the end neither threatened United’s goal or to pick out his team-mate.

Through all this, Scholes remained on the bench, a passive spectator, the debate in his mind about whether he could make a meaningful contribution next season doubtless continuing.

He was eventually introduced for Gibson with just 18 minutes remaining.

Scholes’ willingness to get hold of the ball instantly brought some direction to United’s attacks.

Berbatov fed Patrice Evra, then continued his run to collect a return pass from the full-back before firing a long-range effort over.

Berbatov almost managed to thread a pass through to Nani but Mandanda pounced.

What appeared to be a golf ball was thrown into the United area as they set themselves up to defend a Marseille corner three minutes from the end.

UEFA might take a dim view of that, although if nothing else it provided a talking point as a desperately disappointing contest petered out.

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