FLOPS ‘Mourinho RAHEEM TO can lift the BE ’BETTER’ title.. even if City win’

PEP GUARDIOLA reckons Manchester United can still win the title – even if his Manchester City side beat them in tomorrow’s derby showdown.

Champions City are currently top of the table with a two-point lead and are nine points ahead of seventh-placed United going into the Etihad clash.

City are favourites to beat United, but Guardiola (above) believes Jose Mourinho’s side can not be ruled out of the title race – even if they are 12 points adrift come Sunday night.

“Win or lose, they are not out,” said Guardiola. “That’s not possible in November. “They’ve already shown they can recover. They’re a big club, with a big mentality, they showed it against Newcastle.

“Since we arrived at City we tried to show the players never to give up. In the last months we haven’t lost two games in a row. United have the history and always they are there. In November, there are still five or six strong teams. Maybe in March or April, but everything can change then.

“The derby means a lot to the fans, and they are special games. But we’re in November, maybe the Old Trafford game in March will be more important.”

United have won five of their last six games, including Wednesday’s epic 2-1 comeback win away to Juventus.

And Guardiola added: “When they have the ball and the people in front – wow! – they can create something. “They have an incredible amount of talent up front and in the middle as well.

“That’s why we have to defend deep and strong, defend the crosses and avoid set pieces, as they are huge and better than us. If they can win in Turin, where Juventus have not lost in nine years, that shows how strong they are.”

MAKE THE RIGHT NOISES (clockwise) Pogba, Martial, Shaw and Lindelof will be aiming to hurt the champions RAHEEM STERLING believes his improvement as a player has been “incredible”.He put his name to a new threeand-a-half-year, £275,000-a-week deal (below) yesterday and said: “I’m delighted to sign. My development here has been incredible.“I felt from the minute I got here it was the right choice for me. It’s really paid off for me and I’m really grateful. Every season you come in you want to develop and do better than your previous season.“With the facilities we’ve got here there’s no reason not to.“With the coaching staff and the players we have in this team it’s the perfect environment to develop and get better.”The England international, who has seven goals already this season and five assists, had become a target for Europe’s elite clubs – Real Madrid among them.But Sterling is adamant he wants to stay at the Etihad and continue his progress under Pep Guardiola.The City boss said: “He’s sharp, fast, clever, always fighting, decisive and he can play both sides.“But still, with the young guys like him and Leroy Sane, I feel they can improve.” out on their own. The United boss said: ”I focus on football, so if you want to speak about their football potential we can speak, and football potential starts with investment.“After that, of course, there is a quality of the work, of the organisation, I think that is untouchable.“What is behind, I cannot say. In this moment I have only to think about football, and to think about football is to think about Manchester City as a football team.”United came from behind to triumph 3-2 at the Etihad in April with a winner from Chris Smalling (above) to delay City’s title coronation.And Mourinho said they will go there again to try and throw a spanner in the works.Asked if United will go toe-to-toe with City in an attacking sense, Mourinho said: “We’re going to try.“I can’t say we’re going to be successful in our motivations, but we played two difficult matches away against two very good teams, Chelsea and Juventus, and we managed to get good results. The team is growing up.”