Aymeric Laporte insists there's 'only one winner' in Manchester rivalry

Aymeric Laporte has insisted that there is 'only one winner' in the Manchester United vs Manchester City rivalry – and it's his Cityzens.

Since City were taken over in 2008 by current owner Sheikh Mansour, the gulf between the two old foes has never been bigger than it is this season.

The former 'noisy neighbours' are currently 20 points clear of United with nine Premier League games left to play. City also humbled the Red Devils 4-1 at the beginning of the month, ending their recent poor record against their rivals at the Etihad.

Laporte played 90 minutes in that victory and speaking to the Guardian he claimed that United get 'annoyed' by his side's sustained success.

"If I’m not mistaken, we’ve won 11 trophies in four years [10 across the past four seasons, including two Community Shields]; that can annoy people, like our neighbours who haven’t won anything," he said.

"They have a lot of supporters, we’re in the same city. It’s hard [for them] to understand. But there’s only one winner. They’ve spent a lot of money too."

Although they have dominated United in recent years, City have been caused plenty of issues by Liverpool. It has been a similar story this season with the Reds just one point behind Pep Guardiola's side in the Premier League title race.

Due to the vast sums spent on assembling City's squad they are often criticised for any weakness, and Laporte was keen to assert that money would not be the deciding factor in who wins the trophy this term.

"We’re humans, people have to understand that: just as we beat United, we lost to Palace. You can’t explain that with money," he explained.

"However much a player costs, that doesn’t mean he’s going to be the best. It’s not an exact science. We’re leaders, a point ahead of Liverpool. We have the best defence – and [yet] people throw defensive issues at us.

"City can’t be afraid of anyone," he added. "Something like this happened a few years ago: [Liverpool] were a point behind in the same week, and in the end we won the league. We have this fight now and that’s good for the fans, and neutrals."

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