Paul Ince: It’s absurd to call this Manchester City side the best the Premier League has ever seen

The former Man United player has laid into those who are “jumping on the Man City bandwagon” and says Mourinho’s side are still challenging for the title.

‘How can you call a team the greatest ever, when they’ve won jack sh*t?’

I don’t see how people can sit there and say this current Manchester City side are the best to ever play in the Premier League.

How can you call a team the greatest ever, when at the minute they’ve won jack sh*t? You just can’t. For people to say that is just absurd.

I’m sick of seeing people suggest this team are better than Manchester United’s ‘99 team, not to mention their ‘92/93 or ‘94/95 sides. Then there’s also the Arsenal Invincibles team. City’s team do not come close to any of those.

If you’re talking to me four years down the line, and Pep’s City have won the league and the Champions League, then maybe. But now, when they’ve not won nothing? No. I’m just not having it.

It’s insulting to the teams in the past who have achieved much more than they have. Yes, they play great football and they score lots of goals.

Yes, they’ve got some fantastic players. But they are no more fantastic than Eric Cantona, Thierry Henry, Roy Keane, Ryan Giggs or Dennis Bergkamp.

‘Jose Mourinho is waiting patiently for Pep Guardiola to slip up – people are crazy to rule United out of the title race’

It feels like every single person you speak to is convinced that the derby, and therefore the league, is already Manchester City’s.

They must be crazy to rule Manchester United out of the title race already. People have very short memories, last season when Pep’s team went ten games unbeaten, everyone was positive the trophy was theirs and look what happened.

There are suggestions that they will go unbeaten all season, and I’m sorry but that’s not happening. It’s impossible. It only takes one or two injuries, say to Kevin de Bruyne or Sergio Aguero, and suddenly their whole team dynamic changes.

People are just jumping on the Man City bandwagon because they are doing well at the minute. Jose Mourinho, Antonio Conte and Jurgen Klopp are all patiently going about their business, waiting for them to slip up.

Before the start of the season, it seems like everyone was convinced that this was going to be Pep’s year. They thought it would be like his previous seasons at Barcelona and Bayern Munich and City would be beating everyone 4, 5-0. The last couple of games have indicated that it’s not always going to be that way.

Even if United lose the derby, it isn’t the end of the road for them. Yes, it will be much more daunting to try and close an 11-point gap, but City will slip up at some point. They will lose to a lesser opponent, and then the pressure is on the Reds to try and catch up.

Nothing is set in stone, especially when you’re not even halfway through the season.

We should know from certain moments in Premier League history that there are plenty of times when teams have had a lead and have been clipped back. Who knows, we could even end up with another 2012 situation, but this time, Man United could come out on top…

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