CHRIS ERSKINE last night insisted Aberdeen remain the benchmark as Dundee United attempt to eclipse their New Firm rivals this season.

United welcome Derek McInnes' men to Tannadice for tomorrow's televised Premiership opener after the Pittodrie side achieved what they themselves were striving for by finish runners-up to champions Celtic last season.

Jackie McNamara's side got off to a blistering last time round to put them in contention for all three domestic trophies until a dramatic downturn in fortunes after the New Year saw them ultimately finish fifth in the table.

Midfielder Erskine, who was on target in United's 3-0 opening-day victory at Pittodrie 12 months ago, maintains McInnes' side will be the team to beat if they're to fulfil their ambition of wrestling that second spot from Aberdeen, who have added former Inverness Caledonian Thistle man Graeme Shinnie and on-loan Liverpool keeper Danny Ward to their ranks over the summer, as well as Joe Nuttall from Man City and former Ross County defender Paul Quinn.

Erskine said: “They’ve got strength right through their squad and they’ll be looking to push on.

“Obviously, they pushed Celtic quite far last year, only falling away towards the end, so I’m sure they’ll be looking to do the same again.

“Celtic will always be the ones who win the league but the way they pushed them last year, I’m sure they’ll take heart from it and will want to push them even further this year. The main thing was their consistency.

“They didn’t conceded a lot of goals and won games and we strive for the same consistency here at United.

“Europe was the main aim at the start of the season and towards the end we had a wee chance of clinching a spot as well.

“But it just didn’t happen so it has been a bit frustrating for us. Hopefully this year we can turn it around.”

United are aiming to hit the ground running like last year and Erskine hopes their summer arrivals like Mark Durnan, Coll Donaldson, Darko Bodul and Rodney Sneijder can find their feet quickly in the Scottish top-flight.

He said: “You always need to to get off to a good start.

“If you want to be up near the top of the league you don’t want to be playing catch up from the start.

“The new guys look good – we don’t know much about them, obviously, but they’ve played for some good teams and in training they’ve looked good.

“They maybe need a wee bit of fitness to get them into the swing of the rest of the squad, but they look good players.”

Meanwhile, McNamara is well aware of the Don's quality after they pulled a goal back in Thursday's 2-1 defeat away to Kairat Almaty in Kazakhstan in their their bid to reach the Europa League play-off round.

McNamara said: “Derek should be delighted with pulling a goal back from being 2-0 down in Kazakhstan as it gives them a great chance of going through.

“It's up to the rest of us to try and close that gap near the top of the table and I'm confident we can.”

United trio Ryan Dow, Paul Paton and Callum Morris are all injured so won't face the Dons.