City boss Mark Hughes has insisted the pressure is on Manchester United and not his side as he prepares for this afternoon's derby.
Pundits have predicted a loss for Alex Ferguson's men could see them left with even more of a fight on their hands in the race for the Barclays Premier League title and Hughes' City side are coming into the game on the back of a good week with two victories.
He said: "We’ve had a great week and the Arsenal result gave us good confidence going into the Schalke game. But we’ve been playing well, we’ve compromised ourselves somewhat because of individual and collective errors that have meant we’ve not won games.
"Performance wise we’ve been decent in the vast majority of the games that we’ve played in. We know we are capable of playing good football, but what we need is a consistent level of performance, which on occasion we’ve struggling to get.
"That’s what we are striving for because that’s the mark of a top team and when we get to that level then we can be talked about in those terms. At the moment we are still a work in progress.
"We’ve had the huge spotlight placed upon us of late for a situation that’s ongoing for us regarding the resources at our disposal that in the future we’ll be in a position to use. You look at United, they’ve had huge investment for maybe 20-odd years now and we’ve had it for about 10 hours. So there’s a huge difference.
"We’re very early in our development and know that it’s not going to happen overnight. It’s a huge project here and not only on the field of play but behind the scenes as well which will change it massively. And the focus on us at this moment in time, in football terms, is a little bit unfair because we’re very early in our progression. Make no bones about it we’re going in the right direction and it’s a really exciting time to be here."
Regardless of the current belief from the City boss - one thing is always certain when the two cross town rivals meet and he outlined: "United know and will always know that Manchester City will always give them a big test. What we have to do is make sure that we give them enough problems to enable us to seize the initiative in the game and come out on top."
And Hughes has come out on top previously with his former club Blackburn and knows what it takes to beat Ferguson's men: "You have to test them and have to understand their strengths and what they will try and do against you. You can’t legislate for individual brilliance because they have players who are capable of that.
"What you can do is make it difficult for them to impose their style of play and work ethic, which all the top sides have, and if you do that then at some point in the game there will be an opportunity for you to take an advantage. In the past with my previous club we were able to do that.
"All my teams that I set out against Sir Alex always give him a difficult game and questions to answer. On occasions they answered them and on others they didn’t. We’re hoping to cause them problems at the weekend so we’ll see if they’ve got the answers."
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