Chelsea manager Andre Villas-Boas has insisted new signing Gary Cahill is ready to make his debut against Manchester United as he looks to fill the gap left by the injured John Terry.

Chelsea head into Sunday’s game with the Red Devils without their captain and the suspended Ashley Cole so they will be hoping Cahill can live up to expectations as he is thrown in at the deep end.

The former Bolton defender has not featured in any of Chelsea’s previous three games since his £7 million arrival in January, but Villas-Boas is now set to play him alongside David Luiz at the heart of the defence as they try to shut out the likes of Wayne Rooney and Javier Hernandez.

The Portuguese manager told reporters: 'I think he has been ready from the start, to be fair – he’s trained magnificently well.'

The former Porto boss admitted it is a bitter blow to lose both Terry and Cole because of their partnership down the left side of the Blues' defence.

He added: 'It’s a blow more in the sense of those two not being there to link together.'

Villas-Boas now has to decide if young left-back Ryan Bertrand or Jose Bosingwa will be the best option in terms of trying to stop the in-form Antonio Valencia - who is one of the reasons why Villas-Boas believes United are the team to beat.

'I think they will be the ones to beat. This distance to Man City is equal to nothing and, for me, they will be the main favourites.'

'I don’t think we’ll finish below fourth spot.'

Going on to speak about Fernando Torres, the Chelsea boss added: 'Off the field, mentally he [Torres] is ready, he knows his responsibility, he knows what he has to do.

'On the field and on the training ground, we try and work on his movement. That's the only thing we can do and we have been [doing that] for quite some time.

'I think eventually we could say that a goal will trigger it all but we have to wait and see because there needs to be continuity after that.'