Man City no longer ‘noisy neighbours’, says Pep Guardiola before Carabao Cup tie with Manchester United

The 48-year-old referenced Sir Alex Ferguson’s famous put down from ahead of the Manchester derby and believes that Solskjaer’s blueprint is beginning to take shape at Old Trafford

Manchester City supporters hang a banner of appreciation to Pep Guardiola (Reuters)

Pep Guardiola believes Manchester City have shed their “noisy neighbours” tag under his reign and urged Manchester United to be patient with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer ahead of their League Cup semi-final showdown.

The rivals meet at Old Trafford in the first leg of the competition on Tuesday and Sir Alex Ferguson’s famous put down, delivered in September 2009, was referenced when the scale of the enmity was in the spotlight.

“I know for the years I was not here we were the noisy neighbours,” said Guardiola, who has witnessed City collect 73 more points than United since his appointment. “Now I don’t know who we are.”

City displaced United as the pre-eminent force in English football and raised the benchmark of what it takes to win the title after posting 198 points in the previous two seasons.

However, Guardiola’s men are now 14 adrift of leaders Liverpool, with United a further 13 below them and the League Cup represents a chance for both sides to salvage their domestic campaign.

Solskjaer is under pressure at Old Trafford given how far behind his team are and regularly fields criticism that they are only capable of playing on the counter-attack. But Guardiola believes his counterpart’s blueprint is taking shape at United.

“I think he starts to see in his team what he wanted,” the City boss said. “That is my feeling when I see his teams. Even the last game against Arsenal that they lost, we see clear what he wants.

“It was not easy to handle a team, take over a big big club always demanding to be champions in all competitions, but I think every manager needs time and I have the feeling that United starts to play the way he wants.”

City suffered a 2-1 league defeat to their neighbours at the Etihad last month and Guardiola pinpointed a few elements that will concern his charges again on Tuesday.

“How fast they are,” he said. “How they run on the counter attack. How solid, how aggressive. We conceded a few counter attacks in the beginning and in just two or three seconds they are in the box so they have incredible pace and talent to do that.

“In general that game was good. We create chances and unfortunately we could not win.”