Rio Ferdinand has warned Chelsea and Liverpool that Manchester United are not done yet. It was suggested that Man Utd are flailing behind their championship rivals at an early stage; but Ferdinand feels they can catch up with the two clubs.

Liverpool and Chelsea have already charged to the top of the league in the Premiership.

But the United defender Rio said: “We didn't start off very well last season and it didn't do us much harm, but we do need to start winning consistently and hopefully we'll hit some form now and go on a run of winning a lot of games. That would get us back up there and challenging. We know we can do that, so there's no need to panic.

“You'd love to be leading the league from day one, but it doesn't often happen like that. When you look around the changing-room and see the quality of players, I know we're good enough to win trophies.

“We're all still confident and believe we can go on a 10- or 20-game unbeaten run. Our aim now is to make sure we're within touching distance at Christmas so we can kick on next year and reel those teams in.”