Manchester United captain Gary Neville says expectations at Old Trafford are as strong as ever.

Despite the departures of Carlos Tevez and Cristiano Ronaldo in the summer, there is no letting up of the demands for United players.

"This place is an institution, a religion, and it needs dealing with in its own right every week," said Neville.

"You can't be focusing on other things.

"You get found out quickly here if you get distracted.

"We're here to win titles every season and the fact we've got 18 is irrelevant. If we had 15, we'd want 16. We have 18 so we want 19.

"Now the internationals are out of the way we can focus on what we have to do here."

And Neville issued a veiled warning to Chelsea. "We've got to position ourselves better come January and February - because that's when the real charge starts."