Source: Daily_Mail
United boss Ferguson admits they face huge task in winning fourth title in a row
Sir Alex Ferguson has admitted his Manchester United team face a massive task in attempting to win an unprecedented fourth successive title.
No team has ever won four titles on the trot in the English top flight, and Ferguson will be well aware that history is against his men.
But even though most pundits expect United to be weaker without their star man Cristiano Ronaldo, Ferguson remains confident ahead of the new campaign.
He said: 'Winning four titles is something we'd like to do and it would be a great achievement.
'We know how difficult it is to win this league. We accepted a good challenge last season in terms of having to go to Japan [for the Club World Cup] and then play catch-up and to win the league was a great achievement.
'We don't have that problem this season, although I wish we did. But [trying to win four titles in a row] is still a great challenge for us.'
United's main rivals for the title will be the usual suspects, namely Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal.
But after an extraordinary summer spending spree Manchester City could yet gatecrash that cosy club this term.
Ferguson added: 'It's difficult to say [who the biggest threat is]. I think ourselves, Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal are looking at what's happening at Manchester City with great interest and whether it can work in terms of the money they've spent," he added.
'They're on the back pages every week now and there's a lot of interest in their situation particularly as none of us have really gone into the market in a big way.
'We've sold players in fact - Liverpool sold Alonso, we've sold Ronaldo, Arsenal sold Adebayor ... the big four have actually been really quiet [in terms of buying].
'So we're all interested in how it's going to pan out at City.'
