The new Premier League season gets underway this lunchtime, with our game against Hull and Frank Lampard seems to be as up for it as ever. And whilst he’s obviously cautious enough not to make any sweeping predictions right now (thank the lord), even with the possibility of others breaking into the top four this campaign, it doesn’t seem to be affecting his confidence in us.

The Chelsea midfielder says “The Premier League keeps improving every year. I’m sure the title race will be a classic this season.  We have the added excitement of Manchester City spending money, the top teams the way they are and your Evertons, Tottenhams and Aston Villas pushing hard.  Last year was tight for quite a long time but it’s going to be good to see all the big teams challenging.  We’re going into the season with confidence. The manager has settled very quickly and we’re very determined. It’s nice to have continuity and to keep the same players.   We have a very strong squad and it’s probably been injuries to our key players over the last few years that have made the difference. If we can keep players fit we have a strong team.”

As for United’s last few seasons, Lampard reckons they’ve had their fair share of luck, stating “Sometimes to succeed you need to be a bit more lucky and I think Manchester United had this in the last three years.  In some games they did not play well but because they have this winning mentality, which was maybe better than us in some games, they created this little bit of luck.  We need to go back to winning games regularly, even easy games where we think we’re going to win and then we draw, as well as important games against teams like Spurs where we lost a lot of points last season.  It is really important to go back to this mentality of winners and not be just 100 per cent concentrated, we need to be 110 or 120 per cent motivated to achieve something big.  It is important to be ready. We are still focused on winning the League and performing well.”

So are we feeling lucky?

Filed under: Current Players, Rants