Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has acknowledged Manchester City's recent success but claimed that they will never be bigger than his Manchester United side.
City head into Saturday's Manchester derby three points ahead of their cross-town rivals and are quick to point to their four Premier League titles in the eight years since Sir Alex Ferguson's retirement as evidence of a power shift in Manchester.
The recent trophy count obviously isn't on Solskjaer's side, but ahead of the game, the boss insisted that the silverware isn't important and United will always be the dominant team.
When asked if he could envisage a world in which City are the bigger side, he said (via The Telegraph): "No, I can't. But you have to have respect for what they have done in the last ten 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're the number one club in Manchester and that also probably means in the world."
A similar sentiment was shared by United legend Patrice Evra, who could not hold back his laughter when asked by the Daily Mail if City are the bigger side.
"No way," Evra said. "I have the same number of Premier League titles as City. Just myself! And where is their Champions League? They are much better than United right now but it’s not a worry.
"The history will never die. If they start to win the Champions League it could be a different story but even to reach the level of Chelsea — well, they are not there yet. Only people born after PlayStation 5 came out will say that City are the biggest club in the world. Everyone else? No way."
All eyes will be on United's performance in this one, with memories of their 5-0 drubbing at the hands of Liverpool still fresh in the memory, and Solskjaer admitted this game will be a good test of their ongoing response.
“That [City] will show if we have learned enough because we have moved on from it [the Liverpool loss],” Solskjaer continued.
“We have taken the flak and we deserved it because it was nowhere near good enough on many levels. We have had a good week with two good away results and now we have to play another very good team and it’s up to us to show.
“There is no point me talking about how much we have learned - we have to show it and that is the game in football. There’s too many that talk a good game. We will have to play a good game.”
Source : 90min