PETER SCHMEICHEL HAS said that Manchester City are now a bigger club than United, based on current form.
The former United and City goalkeeper has made the comments in the build up to this weekend’s Manchester derby.
In Schmeichel’s eight years at United the Red half of the city won five Premier League titles and a European Cup, while City dropped to the third tier of English football.
However, with City’s two titles wins in the last three years, the Dane believes that there has been a shift in power.
“In my first couple of years (at United) I didn’t understand (the rivalry with City). Liverpool and Leeds were the much bigger,” Schmeichel told BBC Sport.
“Now it’s different. Man City are the champions, they had their second Premier League win last season and maybe at the moment they are a bigger club than Manchester United in terms of results so the significance has changed.”
Despite making 29 appearances for City after leaving United the 50-year-old insists that he is still a United fan, but says that recent form worries him.
“It (the derby) is a tricky one for Manchester United because of their inconsistency,” Schmeichel said.
“They have defended badly and then well, scored a lot of goals and then not a lot of goals – the Leicester game was the best example of that.
“They went 1-0 up, 2-0 up then 3-1 up and lost 5-3. That’s unheard of.
“That’s not Manchester United or the way they want to be. We don’t know what we will get on Sunday.”
United sit eighth in the Premier League table with just three wins from a possible nine while City lie third, six points behind leaders Chelsea.