NASRI : United is a bigger threat than chelsea

Frenchman also says that when they visit London on Sunday, Roberto Mancini's men aim to play the kind of football that saw Liverpool secure a 2-0 win at Stamford Bridge recently.

Samir Nasri insists that Manchester United pose a more significant title threat to Manchester City than Chelsea do.

The Red Devils are currently two points behind the league leaders, but have played one game more, while Andre Villas-Boas' men are 10 points behind, in fifth place in the standings.

City travel to London to play Chelsea on Monday night, with the Blues having just qualified for the knockout round of the Champions League as group winners, in contrast to both Manchester clubs, who bowed out of the competition.

But Nasri believes that City's arch-rivals pose more of a threat on the domestic circuit.

"Man United are still the threat to us," said the Frenchman, according to The Sunday Mirror.

"I say that because they have more experience than any other team. It will be difficult when we play Chelsea, of course, but we knew it would also be difficult going to places like Spurs, Man United and Liverpool - and we had great results against those teams.

"So I don’t know what we have to fear about Chelsea."

Concerning the game plan against the Blues, the 24-year-old midfielder conceded that City will look to play a similar style of football that Liverpool employed when they emerged victorious at Stamford Bridge.

"We are ­confident about our quality and we will try to play the same game that ­Liverpool did when they beat ­Chelsea in the league at Stamford Bridge," Nasri said. "We know that if we press them high and play our football, then they will be in difficulty."

But in the long run, Nasri admitted that City are looking to emulate Barcelona, who have won the Champions League twice, La Liga thee times and the Copa del Rey once in the last three seasons.

"Our model is Barcelona," he said. "As a team we defend very high up the pitch and I believe that’s why we are scoring so many goals.

"When you win the ball in the other team’s half it will always be easier to score because you are closer to goal. You have less distance to run and you are fresher running just 30 metres.

"We cannot win the Champions League now, but our objective at the start of the season was the [Premier] League."

Hosts make perfect response to Champions League exit

The England striker returned to form with two goals to lead the Red Devils to victory over Mick McCarthy's team as they bounced back from their midweek disappointment
Manchester United bounced back from their midweek Champions League elimination in style as they cruised to a 4-1 victory over Wolves at Old Trafford.

Nani and Wayne Rooney bagged two goals apiece to hand the Red Devils three points against a Wolves side that once again failed to provide much in the way of resistance against one of the Premier League's top teams, Steven Fletcher's goal early in the second half aside.
United quickly began to assert their control over the game, having been woken up by an early effort from Fletcher that missed the target. Their first chance came when a gap between the Wolves defence and midfield was effectively exploited by Rooney. Carrick’s through ball gave him an opportunity to the left of Wayne Hennessey but the Welsh goalkeeper saved well.

One man currently enjoying a rich vein of form is Nani and he slammed a low shot in from the edge of the box to give the home side a 17th minute lead. The Portuguese winger starred against Basel and was prominent again here, cutting in from the left past two Wolves players to set himself up for the opener.

Wolves came from behind to beat United last season but there looked to be little chance of a repeat here. Rooney, whose barren spell prior to this match had stretched to eight league games, has never gone nine Premier League matches without a goal and ensured that record stood up with a precise finish from 18 yards after 27 minutes.

Hennessey was called into action again a short time later, just doing enough to get a fingertip to a Rooney effort which deflected off of Roger Johnson towards the far corner. He went on to make two further saves from Rooney and Nani before the half drew to a close.

If there was one spell in which Wolves were on top in the first half, it was in the first 60 seconds. History was to repeat itself in the second period and this time Ferguson’s men were punished for their early lethargy. Jarvis sped down the left and evaded Chris Smalling before standing up a cross for Fletcher, who powerfully rose above Patrice Evra to bring Wanderers within one.

United, once again, belatedly sprung into life and a cross from the wonderfully energetic Phil Jones just beat the toes of Rooney and Welbeck.

It was Jones who would instigate the move that restored United’s two-goal lead. The 19-year old released Valencia down the right wing and the Ecuadorian picked out Nani in the box, who tapped past by Hennessey.

Valencia, who grew into the game as it went on, was arguably even more impressive than Nani and he set up United’s fourth. Cruising into space down the right-hand side he pulled a cross back for Rooney to convert for his second of the match.

Ferguson was confident enough to introduce 19-year old Zeki Fryers at left-back with just under 25 minutes to go. The young defender is the first player to play for United in the Premier League who was not born when the competition began in August 1992.

Substitute Federico Macheda was denied by Hennessey in the late stages of the game but it mattered little as United moved back to within two points of league leaders Manchester City with the sort of positive response they urgently needed.