David Moyes has refused to reveal whether any of his injured centre-halves will be available for Manchester United's crunch derby against rivals City on Tuesday night.
Chris Smalling (hamstring), Jonny Evans (calf) and Rio Ferdinand (back) sat out the 2-0 win at West Ham on Saturday, but manager Moyes was giving no clues away regarding their fitness when questioned on the matter at his pre-match press conference.
Winger Antonio Valencia (eye) is a doubt but defender Nemanja Vidic (suspension) and striker Robin van Persie (knee) are definitely unavailable.
Moyes did reveal that he believes opposite number Manuel Pellegrini should not have branded City the only club in Manchester - and warned the Chilean that United are ready to rise again.
Ever since City defeated United 4-1 in October, City have gone from strength to strength on the home front, while United have stumbled to one disappointing defeat after another. A 12-point gap has now opened up between the two teams.
Pellegrini’s side are favourites for the title owing to their games in hand, while United look set for an unedifying venture into the Europa League next season. And as City prepared to take on Barcelona in the Champions League last month Pellegrini appeared to poke fun at United’s predicament.
“If you consider this season, there is just one club in Manchester and it is ours,” the City manager said. “But you cannot forget what United has done in previous years.”
If the second sentence of that quote was supposed to be taken as a compliment, then it certainly has not gone down that way at United. By using the words “previous years”, the impression was that United’s glory years were a thing of the past and that is certainly not something Moyes agrees with.
“Well Manchester United had lots and lots of seasons of domination,” the United boss answered when questioned about Pellegrini’s comments for the first time. “I don’t think if I was a manager I would have turned round and necessarily said that we were the only club in Manchester because football does change, it goes in cycles.”
Just last week Moyes was faced with questions about his future following claims - denied by sources at the club - that the United hierarchy were considering replacing their manager. But the mood has changed somewhat since the 3-0 defeat to Liverpool. Moyes is far more buoyant about the prospects ahead for his team for the rest of the season and beyond.
“Hopefully we will be coming out of our (bad) period quickly,” he said. “Plans are afoot and try and make a real good go of it next season. We are not in the position we want to be just now but we will do everything we possibly can to do it next year.”
A look at the statistics shows why the bookmakers have City down as favourites for the 167th Manchester derby. City have won the last two derbies at Old Trafford - one of them was a whopping 6-1 victory - and United rarely troubled their old adversaries when they made the short trip across Mancunian Way in September.
City have scored 28 more goals than United this term and they have conceded seven fewer at the other end. And other than a 1-0 win over Arsenal in November, United have failed to beat any of the sides in the top nine. But Moyes is still confident of securing a win and he insisted that United are not so far behind City than the league table suggests.
He said: “I think we have got the level and we are not as far away as many people would have us and I have no doubt it will improve. We want to show we are still in there fighting. We will do everything we can to win. We go out to win every game, not just the derby game.
“Obviously it means a lot more to the supporters and the city if you win a derby game. We we want to try and perform better in the bigger games than what we have done. It will be important for us to show the level of what we have got.”
Pellegrini, meanwhile, has denied his side will start as favourites when they head to Old Trafford.
Pellegrini’s men might be forgiven for swaggering across town with a mighty 12-point advantage over their rivals, and knowing another win will take them a big step closer to reclaiming the Premier League title.
“I don’t think we are favourites in any game. We are in a good moment but we are playing against a big team in their own stadium, so I don’t think we are the favourites.
“Of course we always expect to go and win every game but, I repeat, just because Manchester United have had a difficult season it does not mean we are going to win. We have to go there and play a very good game.”
City’s 5-0 stroll against Fulham on Saturday sent them back into third place, six points behind leaders Chelsea but with three games in hand.
And to add to Pellegrini’s options he will have captain Vincent Kompany back to bolster his defence at Old Trafford after the Belgian sat out the win over the Cottagers as he served a one-match suspension for his sending-off at Hull.
Pellegrini is clearly anxious to avoid suggestion of the mind games which so frequently marked the build-up to this fixture when Sir Alex Ferguson was seeking to resist the rise of the so-called "noisy neighbours" in years gone by.
Referring to his side’s win in September, Pellegrini said: “Of course it is a special match for the fans because they love winning against Manchester United, but for me all the games are special because you have to get three points.
“It is not my duty to analyse what David Moyes has done at Manchester United. I think everyone knows it was always going to be difficult for him to replace Sir Alex Ferguson, but I don’t analyse what he’s done.”
While Moyes’ men will go into the derby in good spirits on the back of successive wins over Olympiakos and West Ham, Pellegrini also believes his side’s torrid week against Wigan and Barcelona earlier this month could stand his own side in good stead.
“All of us want to stay in every competition but when you are eliminated one of the positive things — if you can find a positive thing — is that we are now just focusing on the Premier League,” added Pellegrini.
“You don’t have problems in that sense, mentally or physically. We are just trying to fight for the title. I know we must go game by game and we just have to win on Tuesday and then at Arsenal on Saturday after that.”
