You won’t catch me out, Fergie: Scolari shuns mind games with his rival

Handy: Deco of Chelsea is congratulated by teammate John Terry and coach Luiz Felipe Scolari

manager Luiz Felipe Scolari says Sir Alex Ferguson is wasting his time trying to involve him in mind games.

Scolari's side added a seven-goal victory over Chengdu Blades to their first win under their new manager, although, in truth, the opposition were so poor that it was little more than a training match.

But Ferguson is more concerned with the action that will be starting back home in a few weeks, and he has already fired an opening salvo last week when he suggested Chelsea's new manager would have trouble matching the achievements of Jose Mourinho with his current squad and would find himself under pressure.

Scolari freely admits that a club of Chelsea's standing must win a minimum of one or two competitions every year, but he insists he will refuse to be distracted from his task by the kind of psychological warfare that Ferguson and others like to wage.

'I am not going to fight against any other managers or any names,' said Scolari, after watching his team demolish admittedly low-class opposition in China.

'I know they will try to use psychological weapons against me. I know they will try to wind me up but it won't work, they are wasting their time. I don't want to work this way.

'For one thing I don't speak English that well and I could end up using some bad words, and that is not the right way. And if my players listen to something negative about Chelsea and our team and get angry, I will ask them why they are angry - this is nothing.

'If I was in Brazil it might be different because it is my country and my language. But in England I need to learn and to know what it is like over the next six or seven months. If I need to change, I will but hopefully I can follow my way.'

Eastern promise: Scolari sets the agenda from the touchline as Deco dodges a tackle from Blades¿ Li Tie

On the face of last night's 7-0 win, Scolari's Chelsea may well meet owner Roman Abramovich's demands for winning in style. But if anything, beyond increasing Chelsea's bank balance by a million pounds or so in appearance money, it may well have exposed once more how ridiculous the Barclays Premier League's plans for a 39th Game world tour are.

Late arrivals increased the crowd to about 5,000 in a stadium which holds only 15,000, calling into question once more the assertion that there are millions of supporters in the Far East who need only hear the words 'Premier League' to go diving for their wallets. The casinos of the Far East's answer to Las Vegas were clearly a bigger draw.

It is fair to say the Windsor Arch Cup which Chelsea won last night will not count towards Scolari's trophy target.

The Chelsea manager, who professed to know nothing of Portsmouth's interest in Shaun Wright-Phillips, said: 'I want Chelsea to win some competition because they are one of the top clubs at the highest level, and they need to win one or two competitions a year - minimum.

'In one way it is very difficult for me because Chelsea are a top club and I need to win. But at the same time this is an easy job and not because of the money. It is easy because I have such a great staff. The coaches, the doctor, the physios give me everything I need, so I have no excuses.'