Manchester United can find the optimism in a good stats against top teams in lokalbraget against Manchester City.

Enough, Manchester City won the championship the past two seasons, while Manchester United have lifted the trophy since 2013, but the United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjær insists that United still is the older brother in Manchester.

the Norwegian believe in Saturday's Manchester derby, that it is matter of time before United are back at the top of the league.

- As a club and the size of the we need to bridge the gap, and the goal is to advance past the clubs above us. We need to aim for and believe in, says Ole Gunnar Solskjær, according to the AFP news agency.

Former United manager David Moyes, and recently José Mourinho has said that United will struggle to match the spending power of City, but the buyer Solskjær not.

- I do not agree with. What should we do? Just give up? Be there to challenge them, he asks rhetorically and continues:

- We must believe in it and do not deviate from the plan. We must believe that we do the right things behind the scenes and believe in the players and trænerteamet. We are in a rebuilding phase, and we continue in the right direction, we'll get there.

Manchester United are currently in sixth place with 21 points for 15 matches. It is 22 and 11 points, respectively, førerholdet, Liverpool, and City, which is number three.

United may, prior to Saturday's meeting with the City to find the optimism in a good stats against the best teams in this season.

Solskjærs troops have beaten Chelsea, Leicester and most recently Tottenham and got a draw against Liverpool, who otherwise have made a clean sweep in the remaining 14 league matches.

City, who are 11 points from the first place, have not shown the same strength as last season.

- They have not had the same good results, but it is still the league's best team when it plays up to its best.

- We must recognize that we are still well behind, but we have the opportunity to challenge them, and close a bit of gap between us, says Solskjær.

Saturday's match at the Etihad Stadium starts at 18: 30.

/ritzau/