Delph targets Premier League record with derby win over Man Utd

Dom Farrell

Delph targets Premier League record with derby win over Man Utd image

Fabian Delph is hoping Manchester City can set a Premier League record by beating rivals Manchester United in next week's derby at Old Trafford.

The Premier League leaders restored their eight-point advantage at the top of the table over United on Sunday by coming from behind to beat West Ham 2-1 at home.

Second-half goals from Nicolas Otamendi and David Silva – the latter's volley on the end of Kevin De Bruyne's superb chipped pass coming seven minutes from time – overturned Angelo Ogbonna's opener and ensured City equalled Arsenal and Chelsea's Premier League record of 13 successive wins in the same season.

And now Delph wants Pep Guardiola's side to hold the record outright by taking three points off United, saying: "It'd be nice [to break the Premier League wins record at Old Trafford] because it's a derby.

"We want to win that game but we're taking it each game at a time. Hopefully we can get the three points in that game too."

Delph also praised City's patience after seeing off West Ham with their third 2-1 win in the space of a week.

Raheem Sterling hit injury-time winners against Huddersfield Town and Southampton sides who showed minimal attacking intent in their recent outings against Guardiola's men.

It was difficult to level the same accusation convincingly against West Ham, who sat deep but had chances to lead through Michail Antonio and Manuel Lanzini before Ogbonna headed home Aaron Creswell's cross in the 44th minute, but England international Delph was frustrated by their approach all the same.

"I think the intensity was there but when you've got 11 men behind the ball it makes it difficult," he told Sky Sports.

"It's happened a few times this season. Teams seem to come here and get every man behind the ball, not interested in anything but parking the bus.

"But we have players like David in the team, so we knew if we kept going, kept plodding away, we'd get our chances.

"We knew we had to be patient. We came out flying in the second half, we tried to explain to the boys we still had time and then we started to relax a bit more and found those spaces."

Before facing United, City travel to take on Shakhtar Donetsk in the Champions League but have already secured top spot in Group F.

Dom Farrell

Dom Farrell Photo

Dom is the senior content producer for Sporting News UK. He previously worked as fan brands editor for Manchester City at Reach Plc. Prior to that, he built more than a decade of experience in the sports journalism industry, primarily for the Stats Perform and Press Association news agencies. Dom has covered major football events on location, including the entirety of Euro 2016 and the 2018 World Cup in Paris and St Petersburg respectively, along with numerous high-profile Premier League, Champions League and England international matches. Cricket and boxing are his other major sporting passions and he has covered the likes of Anthony Joshua, Tyson Fury, Wladimir Klitschko, Gennadiy Golovkin and Vasyl Lomachenko live from ringside.