Rio: Look at the league table and it will show you who’s best, Jose

Listening to Rio Ferdinand at the Carrington training complex, you could easily believe that Manchester United have since nicked the credo until he reminds you that Sir Alex Ferguson was probably the inventor of the phrase in the first place.

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The England defender looked astonished when it was put to him that, having lost the Premiership title, Chelsea's resolve might have stiffened for Saturday's Cup Final showdown while there was a danger that United would enter the contest too relaxed.

His incredulous face suggested the questioner had never had the pleasure of being acquainted with a Govan hair-dryer.

"At Manchester United, that [over-relaxing] just doesn't happen," boomed Ferdinand. "If you sit on your laurels, the manager will sense that and you'll be out the door before you can say boo'. There's no way we will have eased up.

"I don't think you deserve to be on the team or on the pitch at all on Saturday if you're thinking we've won the league and we're satisfied with that'. The way we look at it, it doesn't bear thinking about if we get beat at Wembley.

"We know it's our last chance to win a trophy and the lads in this squad are still as hungry as ever. You just have to look at someone like Giggsy, who's been incredible. He's just won his ninth championship and now he's after his fifth FA Cup. We're never satisfied."

Ferdinand, whose silk-and-stone central defensive partnership with Nemanja Vidic has been a key to United's success this term, pinpointed the one real downer of their season, the trouncing by Milan in the Champions League semi-final, as the episode which has made United most ravenous.

"We were very down but that big disappointment, I really believe, spurred us on for the remaining part of the season, even though the whole back four were out with injuries," recalled Ferdinand, who himself missed the game with a groin problem.

"The bitter taste left by that defeat can help motivate us now to win this game."

His own experiences of the end-of-season showpiece have only heightened Ferdinand's personal determination to lift the one major domestic trophy which has so far eluded him. Three years ago, he was left with mixed feelings when he watched United beat Millwall in the final at the Millennium Stadium while he was still serving his ban for missing a drugs test.

"That was a strange feeling, a mix of delight that the boys had won the Cup but also a sombre feeling that you're not really part of it." Still, it was better than the "devastating" sensation of the following year when he was part of the team which lost to Arsenal on penalties.

Convinced he can make it third time lucky, Ferdinand admits he couldn't really care who United played in the final as long as they win. He added: "For the national spectacle, the FA couldn't have asked for anything better than the two most high-profile teams.

"Being at the new Wembley does make a difference too. During the season, when we learned that it was definitely going to be held there, we decided we wanted to be a part of that, to be a team who would make history. Being the team to go there and win the first one would be the stuff of dreams."

Yet Ferdinand is not about to let people portray this as some sort of Premiership Grand Final, a definitive test of which is the superior team. "I believe we've proved that already this year. The final league table doesn't lie," he said. "The previous two years, Chelsea had been the best in the country but this season everyone knows in no uncertain terms that we've been the better team.

"Yet I also believe this is a game where form counts for nothing; we're starting at the same position on the grid. There's going to be huge pride at stake and, though I haven't talked to John Terry about the game, we'll just wait until Saturday, shake hands and then whoever wins between us will get a pat on the back from the other."

To lose, though, doesn't bear thinking about. "We just don't want to have to experience one of the worst things in sport," added Ferdinand. "That walk up to collect the runners-up medal."

Especially not at the new Wembley. In the old days, it was just 39 steps. Now it's 107 steps to hell.