Next weekend’s FA Cup is undoubtedly the Battle of the Titans of English football.

Chelsea are the product of sharp buys, great management and supreme self belief. United are more home-grown talent, carefully nurtured...and a history of success.

For both sides though, the new Wembley will be a battleground where neither team will want to lose – and neither side are clear favourites.

So although the stage will be magnificent for the final rites in the passage of this season's domestic competitions, we should look forward to a match dominated by pragmatism rather than panache.

Those with short memories will flag up last season's final between Liverpool and West Ham as an example of a thrilling match but think back before then.

Since the 1990s, it has been pretty dreary stuff - the FA's own website has four classic finals from the 1980s, just 1990 from the next decade, when United and Crystal Palace drew 3-3, until last season's draw by the same score.

In the intervening 15 years, FA Cup finals have been affairs where either one side has dominated comprehensively, or else tense games where both teams have cancelled each other out.

It seems hugely likely that the latter case will apply again this season - and even more so because the double will be up for grabs.

At least there should be plenty of entertainment off the pitch. By branding his fellow countryman Cristiano Ronaldo "uneducated", and suggesting the winger must have had a "difficult childhood", Mourinho has crossed the invisible line.

It is one thing for managers to slate each other in the so-called mind games they like to play; it is quite another to so blatantly insult a player from another club.

As usual though, Mourinho will have calculated the effect of his words. The Chelsea manager must believe there is nothing to be lost by winding up his opponents' most dangerous player - indeed, that there may be much to gain by trying to put him off his stride.

Sir Alex Ferguson has done his best to protect his player by claiming Mourinho should face disciplinary action for insinuating there is some sort of conspiracy against Chelsea.

Even so, he should be wary of the wiles of Mourinho. Manchester United may be advocates of fast, flowing, dynamic football that is so easy on the eye, but Ferguson should consider applying the brakes to outwit his rival.

If United can keep it tight and rely on the surging breaks of Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney, that should provide them with the best obstacle to break up Chelsea's battering-ram approach.

Chelsea's best hope is sticking to the plan that has brought them so many 1-0 victories this season: i.e. an all-powerful defence, marauding midfielders and strong strikers that present their opponents with a force so relentless that even the best usual succumb to the power they are faced with.

In tactical terms, therefore, we can expect a no-frills match, and no thrills either.

The real entertainment will be on the sidelines as Ferguson and Mourinho go head to head in a final for the first time.

And whoever wins, one can be sure that the taste of defeat will be unbearably bitter for the loser.

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