BLACKBURN Rovers striker Paul Dickov today said Manchester United and Chelsea must raise their games if they harbour dreams of wrestling the Premiership title from Arsenal this season.

Dickov had a box seat at Highbury on Wednesday night as Arsene Wenger's awesome Gunners created a new record for the longest unbeaten run in English football.

It's now an incredible 43 games since the defending Premiership champions last tasted defeat in the league and Dickov believes his former club are currently on a different level altogether compared to the rest of their rivals for the title.

"At the minute, I think Manchester United and Chelsea have got to be chasing Arsenal," said Dickov.

"They are just that little bit ahead, but at the same time if you look back a few years ago to the United team that won the treble, they were absolutely awesome as well.

"So it's hard to compare them but after seeing Arsenal on Sunday and again the other night, I think you've got to say that Arsenal are that little bit ahead.

"If you look throughout their team, first and foremost they are all fantastic athletes, then if you add the footballing ability they've all got, it's pretty scary.

"They've got amazing pace throughout the team but the best thing about them is they all seem to know what each other is going to do.

"There's always two or three players available when someone gets the ball and the killer instinct they've got up front is frightening.

"I was lucky enough to play with Dennis Bergkamp when I was there and for me he's undoubtedly one of the very best in Europe.

"He can thread balls through the eye of a needle and when you've got someone like Thierry Henry on the end of them it's a pretty formidable combination.

"So looking at their side as a whole, for me, they are the complete team."

With the new season barely a fortnight old, Arsenal are the team already setting a scorching pace at the head of the pack.

Wednesday night's historic 3-0 victory over Blackburn was their third in succession and United are having to hang on to their coat-tails.

Nevertheless, Dickov is wise enough not to make the mistake of writing Sir Alex Ferguson's side off at such an embryonic stage in the season.

United may be heading for Ewood tomorrow with the kind of injury list that would decimate most other clubs but they've still managed to grind out results so far, inspired by the talismanic qualities of Alan Smith, their new summer signing from Leeds.

"Even though people are talking about them having a lot of players out injured, the one thing about Manchester United is you can never ever write them off," said Dickov.

"Whoever's out of the team, they've always got someone just as good to come in and replace them."

Ewood has been something of a graveyard for the Reds in recent times with Rovers recording 1-0 victories in each of their last two league meetings there.

A repeat performance tomorrow would come as a welcome tonic for Dickov and his team-mates, who are still searching for their first win after two defeats and a draw from their opening three matches - a sequence which equals the club's worst start to a Premiership season.

"This is what it's all about and it's a fantastic game for us, especially coming off the disappointment of two defeats," said the Scottish international.

"The lads got a fantastic result against them at home last season and we know that if we go about it in the right way and keep our confidence up then you never know what might happen again.

"We are disappointed with our start to the season because you want to pick up as many points as you can early on but if you look at our performance on Wednesday night, and in particular in the second half, then we can take a lot out of it.

"If we continue doing things the way we did in the first half then hopefully our first win won't be too far away.

"We know there's enough quality and enough good footballers at the club to do well so I'm sure we'll come out of this run soon."