Chelsea are the team we fear most, admits Vidic

Vidic claims new boss Luiz Felipe Scolari will encourage further progress out of the Blues, who finished runners-up to United in both competitions last season.

When asked if Chelsea were the main rivals to United once again, the 26-year-old replied: "Always. Chelsea are a great team with big players. This season they buy one or two players and will want to win trophies under Scolari.

"They are hungry probably because last year they won nothing. But that desire is how we are."

The Serbian centre-back claims the return to full fitness of captain Gary Neville and the enduring passion of evergreen elder statesman Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs will ensure there is no complacency as the Red Devils look to defend their titles.

United continued their pre-season preparations yesterday with a penalty shoot-out victory over Portsmouth following a 0-0 draw at Wembley to claim the Community Shield in a match they dominated.

And Vidic said: "We work hard in the pre-season and I can see the hunger in the players' eyes. We are ready to win the trophies again.

"Gary, Scholesy and Giggs are players with experience who still want to win trophies. You see yesterday that they fight for every ball. This is what pushes other players to play the same, this example to follow.

We try to do that and keep going.

"We have a big squad, everyone has stayed and I see the boss speaking of maybe bringing in one more player.

"We missed Wazza (Wayne Rooney) and (Cristiano) Ronaldo in a few games but, like you saw yesterday, we have players who can take positions.

"(Darren) Fletcher did brilliantly and so did Nani - I think we are ready for the new season."

While United are yet to make a major summer signing, Chelsea have brought in Deco, Jose Bosingwa and are strongly linked with AC Milan's Kaka and Real Madrid's Robinho.

Fletcher missed the best chance of the first half when put in by Carlos Tevez but fluffed his effort from six yards.

The Scot then hit the bar in the second half as Jermain Defoe and Peter Crouch struggled both to receive sufficient service and show any coherent link play for last season's FA Cup winners.

Tevez, whom Hermann Hreidarsson today claimed had stamped on him in the 75th minute, forced James into a fine save as the match drifted to penalties where Lassana Diarra, Arnold Mvuemba and Glen Johnson missed to hand United a 3-1 victory in the shootout - 81 days after winning in the same fashion against Chelsea in Moscow.

Vidic added: "It is very satisfying to win. Last season we did the same. It is an important game and good to start the season with a trophy."