Gianluca Vialli has almost mastered the English language, but his gambling terminology still needs a bit of work. After training yesterday, he spoke of the importance of winning big games "when the fish are down". A voice asked helpfully: "You mean the chips?" Vialli was clearly hoping Chelsea can avoid getting battered and fried again by Manchester United today.

A salt-and-vinegar match is certainly on the cards when Vialli's Chelsea encounter the league leaders at Stamford Bridge at an hour when most self-respecting footballers are just slipping out of bed. Sky have been promoting this pivotal match with pictures of Chelsea and United players tapdancing on each other and generally knocking one another around. Last month, after United's FA Cup victory, the ferocious rivalry between the two teams carried on in the tunnel. Vialli probably remembers it as a cod war. With his shaved head and goatee, he is half sage, half untamed warrior, but it was the more reflective side of his nature which dominated yesterday's pre-match chat. Time passed in the company of Dennis Wise and co has caused him to acquire that ubiquitous footie habit of prefacing things with "to be fair . . ."

To be all square, Chelsea must avenge that 5-3 hammering on January 4th and halt a sequence of two league defeats. Even if some at Stamford Bridge may have discreetly given up on the idea of closing the 11point gap between Chelsea and United, finishing runners-up would still carry Vialli's Azzuri into next season's Champions League. Thus, the struggle they must win in their final 12 matches is not so much with United as Arsenal, Liverpool and Blackburn. But today's game is also a test of Chelsea's general upward mobility and Vialli's ability to out-think the most formidable tactician and motivator in the British game.

Vialli describes Alex Ferguson's United as having "the best team, best mentality and the best players. We are doing everything we can to be the next Man Utd and be successful for the next five or six years." He has never spoken to Ferguson socially, but would like to. "He has got so much experience. I could learn some things from him."

Vialli has learnt much already on his own. It took him 90 minutes to get his new team to Wembley with a rousing triumph over Arsenal in a League Cup semifinal. That champagne supernova evaporated at Filbert Street three days later when they were beaten 2-0 by Leicester. Vialli turned that trauma nicely: "Looking on the bright side, it was good to lose that match because now I know the feeling. I'll try not to go through it again."

Vialli is attempting to iron out the undulations in Chelsea's form by encouraging his players to be a little less elaborate in midfield. If there is to be a victim of this policy shift, it could be Vialli's compatriot Gianfranco Zola, who has been out of form and out of the Italian national side. In a three-man strike force Vialli wants Zola to vacate his favourite position just in behind the main strikers. Zola has spoken to the Italy coach Cesare Maldini about the World Cup and is confident he has not been expunged from Maldini's plans. "The coach knows me well," Zola said. "He knows I'm playing badly at the moment, but it's only a moment. I have time in front of me." Zola spoke of the "hurt" in the Chelsea dressing room at the immensity of that Cup defeat last month.

For Frank Lebouef, the emotional hurt of that Cup defeat last month, could have been compounded by a few bruises. He and United's David Beckham had what Bill McLaren might call "a bit of a disagreement" in the tunnel later. Vialli will be telling his players not to resume hostilities. "Beckham and Leboeuf are mature enough to know that today's game is between Chelsea and Manchester United, not Frank and David. We have to be aggressive, press them on everything, but with fair play. We have to tackle, we have to be tough, but I hope we don't see anything nasty."

The Italian view of English football has not changed much. Or not Vialli's, anyway. "You have to work your socks off, you have to be strong, mentally and physically." The same message will be conveyed to his players at brunchtime. For Chelsea the chips - and the fish - are down.