Villas-Boas faces arguably the biggest challenge of his fledgling managerial career on Sunday when he pits his wits against Ferguson for the first time. The Manchester United manager's mind games have become the stuff of legend, with the likes of Kevin Keegan, Arsene Wenger and Rafael Benitez all appearing to suffer meltdowns in reacting to them. Ferguson has yet to turn his guns on Villas-Boas in any serious fashion but will be expected to do so the longer Chelsea and United remain locked together in the Barclays Premier League title race. Villas-Boas has insisted he would not buckle, saying: "You just have to wait and see how you are provoked and if you need to respond or not. "You can react in different ways, and transmit other ideas to the players. "The most important thing is for the players to have belief in the manager. "If the manager concedes to an advantage of that kind, it might look like he is subjective to pressure." Villas-Boas, who swept the board at Porto last season, added: "Last year in Porto, I had my disagreements with the Benfica manager (Jorge Jesus), which was normal when they were threatening to the title, but it had no effect on the title race." That approach runs contrary to that of Villas-Boas' mentor, Jose Mourinho, who believes a football match begins at the pre-match press conference. "That was just his philosophy - this is mine," said the 33-year-old, who was not even born when Ferguson began his managerial career and had only just turned nine when the Scot was appointed United boss. With Villas-Boas having been headhunted by Chelsea just two years after beginning his own foray into management, Ferguson could be forgiven for feeling some resentment towards his latest adversary. Villas-Boas, who began taking his coaching badges as a teenager, said: "Sir Alex was a player, I wasn't a player. You cannot compare. "There are good examples of people who didn't have playing careers and took a job at a top club. "I was lucky enough to have that at Porto and we won four trophies. I'm lucky enough to find myself here now." Villas-Boas and Ferguson have already crossed paths, initially at a Premier League managers' meeting and then more recently at UEFA's elite clubs coaches' forum. "He was coming out of the loo and I was just there," Villas-Boas said. "We said hello. We spoke about something, the weekend. Even Stoke, to be fair. Stoke, funnily enough, were one of the main discussion points of the elite clubs' meeting." Villas-Boas insisted he had nothing but respect for Ferguson, who he admitted he could never have imagined he would be competing with when he was growing up in Portugal. "I'm very grateful and honoured to play a game against a person who has won so many titles," he said, insisting he did not yet feel like an equal. "As a manager, his CV speaks for itself. "You just have to praise someone who wins that much in the game. "I lost count on the amount of titles he's won. Bearing in mind most of those titles are as difficult as Premier Leagues, Champions Leagues, FA Cups, it's out of this world." Stopping short of hailing Ferguson as the best of all time, he added: "Ferguson, Mourinho and (Pep) Guardiola, it's incredible the amount of time these people win and the amount of passion and how driven they are to be successful." It is sustained success at the highest level that sets Ferguson apart from his peers but although Villas-Boas hopes to enjoy a glittering career of his own, he remains determined to leave management before he turns 50. "My idea is a short career," he said. "I don't see myself carrying on to that extent." Villas-Boas' Stamford Bridge career depends on getting the better of Ferguson sooner or later and Sunday's game is as good a time as any to start. United have shown few weaknesses this season but one is the form of new goalkeeper David De Dea. Villas-Boas said: "Coming into (Edwin) Van der Sar's steps is very difficult, but there's no need to be aggressive with him. "United have won all the games he's played in goal. "Individual players will have better or worse performances in the games, but the focus is on him bearing in mind the importance of Van der Sar for United, who performed at such a high level in the game."
