Ole Gunnar Solskjaer takes his Manchester United side into this weekend’s Manchester derby on the back of a 9-game unbeaten run, following Thursday’s 3-0 FA Cup win at Derby, and will now hope to boost their Champions League qualification hopes when Man City visit Old Trafford.
Pep Guardiola’s side may be out of the Premier League title race, but they’ve been imperious in recent weeks, following a 2-1 Champions League win at Real Madrid with a Carabao Cup final triumph and a booked place in the FA Cup quarter-finals.
Solskjaer said (via Sky Sports): “They will feel confident. They have hit form, they are playing well. They have just been to the Bernabeu, winning there as well, and won the cup final.
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“So I am sure they will play their game, we will play our game, and hopefully it will be a good one.
“Let’s hope it will be a 4-3, like we have seen before.
“There have been many classics. We will do what we can to make it a classic.”
The two teams met in the Carabao Cup semi-finals this season so we’ve had more derbies than usual this season. City won that 3-2 on aggregate, while United won the season’s first Premier League meeting 2-1 at the Etihad.
“I think it helps because our team is developing and you want to play against the best.
“We want to learn and they have been the best for the past few seasons. For us, it’s a great challenge.”
The race for top four is heating up and United are hitting form at a good time, but only a win on Sunday will convince me that this team has turned a curve.
We are currently three points behind Chelsea in fourth, with Wolves, Tottenham and Sheffield United also in the mix.
“We have just got to concentrate on ourselves and keep improving and keep getting results,” added Solskjaer.
“But I know it’s going to be tight, Wolverhampton are definitely putting up a challenge as well. There are loads of teams that want to get in the top four and we are one of them.
“We just need to manage our squad well enough, rotate well enough, and these next few games, they are important.
“If we can get six points from Manchester City and Tottenham [March 15], then we are giving ourselves a good chance.”
