PREMIER LEAGUE THE DERBY
Nemanja’s new deal It’s 10 years since United did the double over City
MANCHESTER UTD
NEMANJA MATIC has agreed a new deal to stay at Manchester United.
That is a remarkable turn around in fortune for the 31-year-old Serbia star who looked like he was certain to leave Old Trafford.
Matic is out of contract this summer but boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said: “He will stay here. Yeah, 100 per cent. We have agreed with him so he will stay.”
Matic, a £40million buy from Chelsea, has played in 14 of United’s last 17 games.
OLE GUNNAR SOLSKJAER is desperate to end a decade of derby misery at Old Trafford today.
It’s been 10 years since Manchester United last did a Premier League double over rivals Manchester City – and Solskjaer reckons that’s way too long.
Michael Owen and Paul Scholes were the goal heroes in 2010, scoring famous winners at Old Trafford and the Etihad in the days when United had the edge over emerging Noisy Neighbours City in the last seasons of Sir Alex Ferguson’s reign.
Since then Pep Guardiola’s City have dominated the Manchester landscape in terms of trophies and derby-day victories at Old Trafford.
Solskjaer, though, believes a win for United could be the start of closing the class gap that’s become a chasm
in recent times. “That stat is not nice to hear and for us, it’s one of our challenges to close this gap,” Solskjaer said. “Definitely win our individual battles and win more and more games against them.
“Of course every game against City is massive but I think we have shown we can compete with them on a given day.
“And what we are doing to the squad, building the squad, I think we will get that consistency, more and more consistency, and that will help us challenge for trophies as well as closing the gap in the league table.”
United’s improved form has set them on a nine-game all-competition run without defeat since losing at home to Burnley in January.
And that’s encouraged Solskjaer that the progress he sees at the training ground every day is beginning to accelerate and transfer to games.
He said: “We are nine games unbeaten, so it is easier for me to stand here and say that but I have seen improvement all the time.but now with the signings we’ve made as well it is starting to give us that little edge.
“We know at times we let ourselves down early in the season and some performances didn’t get the deserved results.
“We are getting better but we’re not going to get carried away at being unbeaten in nine either because that used to be the norm at this club and should be the norm here that you go through these long patches without defeat.”
The arrival of Bruno Fernandes for an initial £47million from Sporting Lisbon has been the spark United needed.
And Solskjaer is confident United won’t suffer the same dramatic collapse as in the Carabao Cup semi-final at Old Trafford in early January when they
Man Utd to win