Manchester United are finding themselves in a very unusual position this season, lower down the league table than Manchester City. City’s millions have bought them a squad that is second to none and seemingly will win the league but here are 5 reasons why United and not City will win the league…

Touching Distance

United are only 2 points behind City despite being out of form. Alex Ferguson will be very pleased that his team are still within touching distance of Manchester City despite a string of poor performances. What will happen when United do find their form?

Bottle

Manchester City have yet to prove they have the bottle when they need it. They failed to make it out of their group in the Champions League not getting the required results when the pressure was on. Are we about to see the same happen in the league.

Yaya Toure

Influential midfielder Yaya Toure will be heading off to the African Cup of Nations in January and has been one of City’s most influential players this season. City have a huge squad but Mancini doesn’t seem overly keen on either of Toure’s understudies – De Jong is largely out of favour and Owen Hargreaves has a poor injury record.

United’s Strong Finish

For some reason unbeknown to most of us, Manchester United always come good over the Christmas and New Year break. The build up of fixtures seems to work against most teams but not United.

Mario Balotelli

Italian hothead Balotelli has bags of talent but also comes with a reputation for causing trouble. A fight on the training ground last week with Micah Richards would suggest all is not well at City and with such a small gap between themselves and Manchester United a rash challenge from Balotelli could cost City vital points.