League title is priority for Man Utd: Neville

Winning the premier league for the first time in three seasons is Manchester United's primary target, says defender Gary Neville.

United have seen the title go to London in each of the past two years with Arsenal and Chelsea taking the honours, and Neville is determined to see his club regain the championship after failing to win any trophy last season.

"There has always been a pressure at this club. There is no doubt about it," Neville told reporters on Friday.

"Our priority has to be winning the Premiership this season. Every game for us has to be treated like it is a championship moment. It started last season in the very first game against Chelsea.

"We ended up being 10 points behind after 10 games and we never clawed it back. This season we have to believe any chance we get is a chance that goes towards us winning the championship or at least putting ourselves in a position to win it.

"We haven't really done that in the last couple of years. That has to be our approach to every match," the 30-year-old added.

United started well with a 2-0 victory at Everton last weekend and play their first home game against Aston Villa on Saturday.

"These are the sort of games last season we drew, against Middlesbrough, Manchester City and West Brom at home," he said.

MUST-WIN GAMES

"These are the games we have to win. The result is obviously the most important thing but we have to put on a good performance. We want to give the fans something to cheer about."

Champions Chelsea meet Arsenal at Stamford Bridge on Sunday but United manager Alex Ferguson says he is not concerned about the outcome of that match at this stage of the season.

"It's strangely early for a top-of-the-table clash, the second match of the season," Ferguson told a news conference.

"It's unusual, although we played Chelsea last season in the first game. At that time though no-one thought Chelsea were going to be the winners of the league of course.

"It is early, but the most important thing is for us to do our job properly and I don't care what happens on Sunday really. The most important thing I want to see is that we get three points."

All of United's international players returned from midweek friendlies free of injury, but the squad will not include winger Ryan Giggs and defender Wes Brown, who will be back for the Champions League tie against Debrecen in Hungary on Wednesday.