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Chelsea can be next 'Invincibles' - Vieira

Chelsea's Cesc Fabregas was part of the Arsenal squad in the "Invincibles" season but made no league appearances © Getty Images

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Former Arsenal captain Patrick Vieira believes Chelsea can emulate the fabled "Invincibles" and win the title this season without losing a match.

Chelsea travel to Old Trafford to face Manchester United on Sunday having won seven and drawn one of their first eight games, putting them two points better off than Arsenal were at the same stage of the campaign 11 years ago.

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Asked if he thought that record of 26 wins and 12 draws in their unbeaten title triumph would ever be bettered, Vieira, who led Arsenal in the 2003-04 campaign, told the Daily Mirror: "Yes, of course. Records are out there for teams to beat.

"I think a team will do better than that, but how long it will take we don't know? Maybe, Chelsea.

"I think one day that record will be beaten. I think that Chelsea look really promising. They have not specially played well but they keep winning and they look really strong.

"Physically, Chelsea look one of the strongest teams in the Premier League. They've got quality in Hazard, Fabregas is back to his best and Costa is scoring goals. So Chelsea look good."

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho is well known for creating a strong team spirit and mentality among the players he coaches, and his current squad includes several world-class internationals. Vieira, now the coach of reigning champions Manchester City's reserve side, sees those two elements as the key to Arsenal's record-breaking success under Arsene Wenger back in 2003-04.

"I remember every single thing about it because I'm still in contact with some of the players," the former France international said at the National Football Museum in Manchester, where he was inducted into the Hall of Fame.

"We achieved that record because we were quite close [off the pitch] and we were a strong team on it. And when you have quality in the team like Dennis Bergkamp and Thierry Henry, it gives you more chance to achieve this kind of achievement.

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"We had Thierry at his best. We always knew he was going to score and Dennis was going to create something. We had our togetherness. We had a really strong bond. We knew if we went 1-0 down we would score, because we had the players to do so.

"That team had everything. Physically we were really strong, we had players who were fantastic on the ball. We also had players who could score. So we had everything in that generation. It was the complete team."

Arsenal's unbeaten run was eventually halted after 49 games at Old Trafford on October 24, 2004. A 2-0 defeat to United was followed by a post-match melee between the two sets of players that saw a slice of pizza thrown at then-United manager Sir Alex Ferguson.

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