De Jong: Confident

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De Jong: City full of ‘winners’

Nigel de Jong feels Manchester United’s Premier League pedigree will count for little in the title race this season.

The Citizens, who were last champions of England in 1968, are two points ahead of their illustrious neighbours at the summit.

United claimed league honours for a record 19th time last term, but De Jong sees little reason to get anxious, insisting City are a team of “winners”. 

“United have won the Premier League before, but I don’t think that gives them an advantage,” he told The People.

“Last season City showed they are winners in the FA Cup. If you look around the club there are winners everywhere.

“Yaya Toure has won the biggest trophies with Barcelona and Roberto Mancini has won many titles in Italy.”

De Jong added that City have shown their character in recent weeks, most recently edging FC Porto 2-1 in the Europa League following a 1-0 win over Aston Villa.

“We have had a difficult time in the last few weeks, but the important thing is that we are still at the top,” he said.

“There will be times when you aren’t playing well and that is when you have to show that you have good character.

“Earlier in the season, we weren’t just winning games we were playing some beautiful football. Other teams have learnt from that and now they know they have to stop us from playing.

“In the last few games we have proved that we now have another way of winning, by grinding out results.

“If we win 1-0 until the end of the season we’ll finish top.”