Louis Van Gaal admits Manchester City are the favourites for Sunday’s derby at Old Trafford - on paper at least.
The Manchester United manager points to the Premier League table that shows Manuel Pellegrini side are the more consistent team because they have more points, more goals and a better goal difference.
Van Gaal said: “Who are the favourites? You have to ask the fans. It’s not so important who is the favourite. But when you look at the facts they are first and we are third. There’s a point difference and a goal difference so they are first so they are the favourite I think.”
Even if United win, Van Gaal doesn’t believe they would be title favourites because there is so much of the season still remaining.
“Will it show if we can win the title? I don’t think that is a big question now," he added. "If we beat City we will go top of the table but that doesn’t mean we are the champions. The champions are only decided in May.
“It is a big step if we win but we still have to continue that form over the season. That is also a big question.”
Van Gaal says he and his coaching staff have done as much as they can to ensure the players are fresh after their 3,2000 round midweek trip to Moscow, even ordering the players in to the Carrington training ground after they returned home from Russia at around 4pm yesterday
“I hope that we have recovered,” he added. “We have done everything to help the recovery. We stayed overnight in the hotel [in Moscow] and after the flight we went for more recovery at the training ground. So we haven’t trained much today.
“We have one day less [to prepare] so it is more difficult. We have to do the [team] meetings in a shorter time so it is more difficult for the players.
“But we have to recover because it will be a match on a high level. We have to cope with that. We know that in advance and we have prepared for that.”
Van Gaal lost his first derby at the Emirates last season when Chris Smalling was sent off and United's lost to Sergio Aguero's solitary goal. They took revenge with a 4-2 win at Old Trafford in April but while it was the high point of the campaign for many fans but not the Dutchman.
He said: “It was certainly not my best moment because I think we started badly in that match. Of course we won but it cost us a lot of energy. We played better matches last season and I have said already which matches they were.”
Van Gaal admitted that City’s late winner against Seville in midweek is a sign of good team spirit but insists that is also a key strength of his side.
“I think that that it is a good signal for a team,” he said. “We have done that. We were behind against Wolfsburg and we beat them and they are a very strong team. We were behind against Moscow and they were very well organised defensively but we came back to draw and could have won the game.
“You always need a little bit of luck but you can force that luck and of course City forced the luck.”
Ashley Young (calf), Patrick McNair (abdomen) and Luke Shaw (broken leg) are United’s only absentees.
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