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Milner: City are there to be shot at James Milner expects it to be even tougher for Manchester City to defend the Barclays Premier League title than it was for them to win it - and feels confident the team are ready to make the step up to another level this term. After they secured their first top-flight championship for 44 years in May in the most dramatic fashion, the task of keeping hold of the trophy begins on Sunday for City when they get their 2012-13 league campaign under way by hosting newly-promoted Southampton. Blues midfielder Milner anticipates the job facing him and his team-mates this season to far exceed the one they met in sealing the club's maiden Premier League crown, but the 26-year-old England international is feeling good about City's prospects of rising to the challenge. Asked if he thought staying at the top was harder than getting there, Milner said: "I can't speak from experience because I haven't had that pleasure, but I'm sure it is. "Everyone says that. You're there to be shot at and teams are going to come for you. "It's up to us to keep on improving and not rest on our laurels. We are working harder in training, everybody wants to get better and the competition for places is there. "Being champions is a great feeling but it will be twice as hard to retain. "Teams will now lift their games even more than they did before so it will be a tough experience, but hopefully we'll keep improving as a team and doing well." Milner admits the memories of last season's triumph and having the tag of champions may help boost City this term, but insists the real key will just be hard graft. "Winning is a habit - you want to win matches and you want to win trophies," Milner said. "You gain that belief and I think we gained a lot of belief from winning the FA Cup (in 2011), which gave us the belief to go on and win the Premier League. "Winning the Premier League is not easy. There are a lot of top teams in there challenging so it's a fantastic achievement. "But it's an even bigger test to go out there and do it again so it's down to us to keep working hard. "We won't set any targets, we will just go out there and keep playing the same football and then hopefully we will win some more trophies." Southampton manager Nigel Adkins knows there are few tougher season openers than a trip to Manchester City but is relishing the challenge of trying to upset the reigning champions. Just three years after teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, the south coast side are back in the Barclays Premier League after a seven-year absence. Adkins led Saints to back-to-back promotions from League One and now faces the unenviable task of trying to overcome Roberto Mancini's men at the Etihad Stadium in their first game of the season. Rather than be overawed by the challenge, however, the former Scunthorpe boss is positive about his side's chances. "What a great, great fixture," Adkins said. "Southampton against Manchester City, away from home, the first game of the season, the league champions. "They have started pre-season ever so well again they're the benchmark for everybody now. They are the team that everyone has got to go and catch. "On paper one would expect Manchester City to win the game, but, as we all know, we don't play on paper. "We've got to go there with a belief that we can go and win the game. "It is going to be very challenging, we all know that, but we've got to go with a mindset that we can get something from it. "We've got to be positive in everything we do. It's the first game, we should relish it. "We know it is going to be challenging, we know it is going to be tough. "It would be wrong of us not to expect that, but we've got to have a belief about ourselves."