Jose Mourinho has hailed the attitude, as well as the performances of his Manchester United side, who have seemingly got themselves back on track after an atrocious start to the season.
Manchester United currently sit in seventh in the table, already falling nine points behind league leaders and this weekend’s opponents Man City, who have continued where they left off last season in an unbeaten start to the season.
After making their worst start to a season in Premier League history, United have bounced back to go unbeaten in their last five, including grabbing a notable win against Italian giants Juventus, as well as drawing against high flyers Chelsea.
Speaking ahead of the next huge obstacle, Jose Mourinho has said that his players are delivering everything that he could possibly ask of them in terms of performance and attitude, describing the derby as a ‘special’ fixture.
“I don’t say it’s special because of what happened last season, it’s special because it’s a Manchester derby and it means what it means,” Mourinho said in his pre-match press conference.
“I cannot say we are going to be successful in our desire but we played two difficult matches away against two difficult teams – Chelsea and Juventus – and we managed to get good results. But even when good results were not in our pocket, the performance and attitude has been there.”
Last season, City beat United at Old Trafford, but missed the chance to win the title against their Manchester rivals in the return fixture at the Etihad, when United came from two goals down to win 3-2.