Gary Neville insists Manchester United remain full of confidence despite dropping two points at Newcastle on New Year's Day.
The Red Devils could see their lead at the top of the Premiership cut to four points on Tuesday after claiming just a point from the trip to St James' Park.
However, Neville is buoyed by the fact that Chelsea are the side doing the chasing, rather than United, which has been the case in previous years.
"We know we are a good team and we are a lot more confident going into this year than we were the last one," he said.
"We are not chasing. We are confident. We feel as though we are playing well.
"We are disheartened a little bit because we have not won the game. But in years gone by, when standards were not quite so great, we would have thought of it as a decent result.
"In this day and age now, we are expected to win every game and we are disappointed not to manage that."
Neville believes United were bound to slip up at one point or another during the season but hopes it will not be a regular occurrence.
He added: "Over a 38-game championship, there are going to be occasions like this when you don't take chances and you concede a couple at a difficult place like Newcastle.
"There will be swings over the remainder of the season. We have to make more of the swings go our way than the other teams.
"It is disappointing because we want to win every match. But when we look back in a few weeks' time, we might think it is just a case of us coming to the end of a difficult period."