Vardy targeting Premier League survival, again

England striker Jamie Vardy says Leicester City’s primary target for the new Premier League season will be survival, despite being reigning champions.

Leicester stunned everyone last season by winning the Premier League with Vardy scoring 24 goals, including a record-breaking 11-game scoring streak in October and November.

City face Barcelona in the International Champions Cup tonight and Manchester United in the FA Community Shield on Sunday but Vardy says the team are continuing to set small targets.

“We’ll just do exactly the same as we did last year,” he said.

“We were setting small targets last year and then improving those targets when we got to them and I think it’ll be exactly the same.

“We’ll start off exactly like last year, the 40-point mark, that’s where we want to get and see where we can improve from there.”

(Photo by Michael Regan – The FA/The FA via Getty Images)

With Antonio Conte arriving at Chelsea, Pep Guardiola beginning his reign at Manchester City and Jose Mourinho taking charge at Manchester United, few are expecting Leicester to defend their title.

And Vardy says the squad are quite happy to enjoy their football rather than worry about any pressure associated with being defending champions.

“There’s no pressure whatsoever, all we do is go out there and enjoy it,” he added.

“We enjoy our football, play together as a team and if we win, we win, if we go down and we lose but we’ve played well then there’s no harm in that either.”