Yaya Toure claims Manchester City have got arch-rivals United frightened ahead of Sunday’s derby .
Toure believes United are concerned by his league leaders' scintillating form — they had won 20 straight games before a weakened side lost a Champions League dead rubber away to Shakhtar Donetsk in Ukraine on Wednesday night.
“This game can give us a lift for the future,” said the Blues stalwart. “This year I think, when you see United, they are going to be worried about us.”
Long-time midfield talisman Toure feels Reds boss Jose Mourinho will react to City’s attacking power by parking the bus, even though the match is at Old Trafford.
United were devastating on the break in beating Arsenal on their own turf last Saturday, and Toure warned they will pose a real threat to City.
“They’re going to be very dangerous on the counter-attack and we have to be ready for that,” said the Ivory Coast international, who got a rare 90 minutes against Shakhtar. “Otherwise we will see the game they played against Arsenal a few days ago — so we have to be careful.
“I think with players like Lukaku, Ibrahimovic and Lingard, who is playing well, Rashford and Martial, they’re very fast.
“We need to have a big performance on Sunday. It’s going to be difficult because the way you saw Shakhtar play against us is the way United will play - counter-attack, counter-attack. Very fast and very strong.
“When I see United playing games against big teams, they always wait for a mistake to hit teams on the counter-attack.”
Toure is a battle-hardened veteran of 15 Manchester derbies since his 2010 move from Barcelona (unsurprisingly, the 6-1 thumping of United at Old Trafford just over six years ago is his favourite) and believes Sunday’s instalment could be settled by who wants it most.
“I’ve played in a few. The 6-1 was a big one because of the big team they had,” said the 34-year-old. “Our team is going to be hungry, it’s about who wants it more.”
City will open up an imposing 11-point gap over United with a win, but Toure insists the title race would still not be over if that happens.
“I remember in 2012 when we won the league — United were first and had an eight or 10-point lead, but we came back,” he said. “We don’t want to lose. We have to keep this kind of gap on United.”