Ole Gunnar Solskjær insists Manchester City will never eclipse Manchester United, with the manager claiming his club are number one in the city and probably the world.
United host the champions in Saturday’s 186th derby having not won the title since securing their 20th in 2013. City have since claimed four and had also won the Premier League the previous season, taking their total to seven.
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Sir Alex Ferguson, who guided United to all their 13 Premier League titles, previously stated that City would never eclipse the club in his lifetime. Solskjær was asked whether he could imagine this in his own lifetime, given their rivals’ recent pre-eminence.
“No, I can’t,” he said. “But the thing is you have to have respect for what they have done in the last 10 years or even more so in the last four or five with how dominant they have been in England and in Europe. But we are Man Utd, we are always going to come back, I think we are the number-one club in Manchester and that also probably means in the world.”
Despite an uneven start that has included United losing 5-0 to Liverpool, they would draw level with City on 20 points if Pep Guardiola’s side are beaten at Old Trafford.
“It’s an important game and with a win we still have got the possibility to close up to the teams in front of us,” said Solskjær, whose side won 3-0 at Tottenham last Saturday. “We have just got to keep on picking up points, get further away from what we did against Liverpool and move on. The Tottenham game was miles better but we need to improve in all the aspects of the game. It is only the start of November so we are not going to talk about the end position in the table but still every game in this league is massive and if you can manage three points it’s a job well done.”
United have not played at Old Trafford since the Liverpool loss and Solskjær wants his players to prove that lessons have been learned. “We have to show it and that is the game in football,” he said. “There’s too many that talk a good game. We will have to play a good game.”
Solskjær denied that Jadon Sancho, who was signed in the summer, could have a campaign similar to that endured by Donny van de Beek last season. The Dutchman was bought in September 2020 but rarely played, and it has been similar for Sancho.
“Jadon will play a lot of games,” Solskjær said. “In the last couple of games he has suffered from the system we have played but we will not be a permanent 3-5-2 team. I speak to him regularly so [all] will be fine.”
