Ole Gunnar Solskjaer rules out late title bid despite Manchester derby win: ‘Man City are too far ahead’

Manchester United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is refusing to dream of a late title push, believing Manchester City are “too far ahead” despite yesterday’s superb derby win.

Bruno Fernandes’ penalty and Luke Shaw’s strike saw United triumph 2-0 at the Etihad, ending City’s run of 21 straight wins in all competitions.

The result denied City the chance to go 15 points clear at the top and moved United ahead of Leicester into second but they remain 11 points adrift of Pep Guardiola’s side with just ten game to play.

“We just take one game at a time,” Solskjaer said. “City are too far ahead for us to think we can catch them. Last year we caught 15 points up on Leicester, but City are a different proposition.

“Even today they put us under so much pressure you could see we were playing against a very good team. When you come away with a 2-0 win and another clean sheet and a performance like this then you are delighted.”

Guardiola, meanwhile, was keen not to dwell on the defeat.

Ahead of kick-off he had warned that strolling to the title might bring about a complacency that would not help City’s bid for trophies on other fronts and after the game the Spaniard called on his side to use the loss as a wake-up call.

“Today we lost and we will be the news, but the news is 21 victories in a row,” Guardiola said.

“This result is going to help us a lot to understand how difficult it is. We knew it, but sometimes you have to not win one game to realise and the next one is important.

“We said many times there are still a lot of games to play, we have to start to win again and next game we have the opportunity to do.”