Manchester City’s assistant manager, David Platt, says the Premier League title is Manchester United’s to lose.
Platt was speaking after City’s comfortable 2-0 win over Fulham at the weekend, and was seeking to lessen the pressure on the shoulders of the champions, and place it onto United.
The memory of surrendering a large lead and conceding the league title to City on the last day of last season must still rankle with United.
And Platt is clearly trying to remind United that the game is far from over yet, even though the Red Devils are in the driving seat, with a five point advantage.
"It's not over, we can make it up, it's not insurmountable by any stretch of the imagination," Platt said.
"But, equally, it's theirs [United’s] to lose. It's very, very difficult for us to go on and win the next 15 games on the bounce. But I think we're capable of doing it.
"We just have to make sure that gap doesn't increase and that we're there, because we've no control over what happens at United.
"I thought we were a bit stop-start at the beginning of the season but at the beginning of December we started to play and be more consistent.
"Even though we got beaten by United, I thought we performed well. The other blip we've had was at Sunderland, but even that one was a strange game.
"I think we would win that game nine times out of 10 with the chances we created. At the end of the day they have the advantage and all we can do is look after ourselves."