Manchester United Crisis Not Important Ahead of Derby Clash, Says Pablo Zabaleta

Manchester City full back Pablo Zabaleta urges his teammates to ignore Manchester United's troubles this season while insisting that Tuesday's derby is very special for both teams.

The Citizens have managed to come away with all three points from Old Trafford consecutively in the last two Premier League campaigns.

However, the Argentinean international is wary of the threat United possess as he eyes a hat trick of wins against their archrivals and reigning English champions.

Manuel Pellegrini's side sit third in the league table having amassed 63 points from 28 matches; with three games in hand on Chelsea, who are first with 69 points.

However, the Red Devils have drifted away from their stellar performances and are currently seventh with 51 points, 11 behind fourth placed Arsenal with eight games remaining till the end of the season.

"It doesn't matter, the situation of United. The game is special for both teams. We know how important it is to win the game for the players, the fans, the club. That is why we need to go there and try to win the game. We have won at Old Trafford recently and hopefully we can do it again," Zabaleta told Sky Sports.

City won the Capital One Cup earlier this month. However, their hopes of winning the quadruple were crushed by Barcelona (Champions League) and Wigan Athletic (FA Cup). The Etihad club have only the league title to fight for till the season draws to a close.

Zabaleta believes that he and his teammates have no margin for error and only have themselves to blame if they fail to finish on top at the end of the season.

"Everything depends on us. We just need to keep working hard and winning games. Hopefully we can celebrate something at the end of this season. We don't have an excuse now. We only have Premier League games and we have time to recover well between the games," the 29-year-old added.

"We know it is going to be very tough until the end but we have a great team, we have belief enough to win this title. We know Chelsea at the moment are on the top and even if we have got three games in hand we need to win there and see what happens next game," he said.