'Winning the title has never been easy, but it's getting even more difficult,' Ferguson told the Mail on Sunday. 'There was always a challenge from somewhere and we had to prove our mettle to cope with it. Now people are saying we have to cope with Arsenal, Chelsea and the rest - well we at United have never run away from a challenge and we are not going to start now. We are as ready to meet it as we ever have been.'
With Jose Mourinho set to take over from Ranieri at Chelsea next week Ferguson believes that Chelsea will be difficult to guage.
'Nobody knows what is going to happen at Chelsea, but without doubt their target has to be the title at the very least. There has never been a situation like this before where a new coach looks like coming in with so much money at his disposal. They could be another 10 players added to the squad this year. We will have to wait to see what happens and then deal with it.'