Following penalty shoot-out victories over both Paris Saint-Germain and Barcelona in this year’s pre-season, Serbian midfielder Nemanja Matic has his reasons to be optimistic ahead of the new season, relishing the awaiting challenges of retaining the Premier League crown, and competing in the Champions League.
Chelsea landed back in the United Kingdom on Wednesday, and have started preparations ahead of their Community Shield game vs Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal at Wembley on Sunday. Matic is now looking to see what his team have in store for next season.
Last season, the Blues eased to success in the Premier League, alongside beating Tottenham Hotspur in the Capital One Cup final. The blip in last season for the Blues was crashing out of the Champions League against Paris Saint-Germain, with the Serbian keen to put it right next season.
Of course we’re not happy that we didn’t play so well in the Champions League but we hope this season we can go further,’ Matic suggested. My dream is to win it and we will see if we are ready this season. To be champion you need to have everything – quality, luck, everything. This season I hope we have more luck and with our quality this is enough to be champion.
We have quality like the big teams, we will show that this season. We are ready to compete with everyone. I’m not scared. Our players can compete with all the big stars. That’s why they are Chelsea players. I believe in their quality. Last season we showed our quality and took two trophies. It’s difficult, especially when you’re in the Premier League, to win both, but we are ready for the season.
The former Benfica midfielder believes that his side have had perfect preparation in America, getting ready for the campaign ahead. The Blues are now awaiting their Premier League opening fixture on 8th August, as they welcome Welsh side Swansea City to the home of the champions.
We used these days very well. We had three very difficult games against good teams and especially against Barcelona it was a good opportunity to show how we are prepared. We’re happy we won on penalties. We’ll be ready for Arsenal.
We know what we have to expect. It’s always a special game when you play at Wembley and we’ll be ready for sure.
We’ve trained hard but we needed that as we had one month free. We are ready for the next season and I hope we start well with a trophy and we will try to show our quality in the first game. Of course against champions everyone has special motivation and wants to win, but we are ready for that and we believe in our quality.
