GIGGS GIVES CHELSEA A LESSON

Last updated : 25 July 2005 By editor

From The Mirror:

"Historically it's so much harder to defend your title for the first time," said the Welshman. "Every team wants to beat the champions and raises their game. We found that at United and that's something I'm sure Chelsea will find out next season. It will make life much harder for them.”

"Winning the title can give you the confidence to go on and do it again but it can also work the other way and become something of a burden.”

Giggs sent out a rallying cry to his team mates to lift their game:

"We don't need to remind people of how good we are, we need to do it for ourselves as players and for our fans," he said. "And we know within our squad that we have the ability to win it. People will be making a lot of the fact we've gone two years without winning the title, but we can't afford to get sidetracked by that. We've just got to make sure we're consistent from the start. That's vital if we're going to make a real challenge this time."