Roberto Mancini has spoken of his belief that Manchester City can go on to surpass Chelsea's achievements under Roman Abramovich if they can hold on to fourth place and reach next season's Champions League.
Mancini believes the next five games constitute "the most important in the club's history", starting with Manchester United's visit to Eastlands today.
"Usually the top four clubs in England have been Chelsea, United, Arsenal and Liverpool but next year there could be five top clubs," he said. "Those five would be fighting for the top four positions and the title. And I think we can do the same as Chelsea. We want to be like them or, if possible, better.
"If we can play Champions League next year it will be very important because we can improve a lot. I really think Manchester City could be an important team in the future but to do this we must work very hard."
City still have Arsenal to play, as well as two of the other contenders for the last Champions League spot, Aston Villa and Tottenham Hotspur, but Mancini's team are in their best form of the season.
"This is a different derby as opposed to years gone by," Sir Alex Ferguson, the United manager, said. "It is the first time we have played City when they have a chance of actually achieving something.
"We always believe we can get to Champions League finals but, for City, just being in the competition would be the most exciting thing ever. They haven't won anything for 34 years. And, of course they could go out and sign 10 players with the buying power they have.
"They have still got the small problem of ourselves, Chelsea, Arsenal and possibly Liverpool. But the thing is City can buy. They have such an amazing amount of buying power they can go and buy another team. If they qualify for the Champions League you can be assured they will buy players."
Mancini has already lined up an £11m summer deal for Hamburg's Germany international defender Jérôme Boateng and City's owners in Abu Dhabi have made it clear they will, once again, fund an extravagant transfer spree to help the team make a serious challenge for the league.
"I don't think we will be in competition with City for players because they will be after different types," Ferguson said. "Nobody knows what their plans are but the point is they have a buying power that is different from all the other clubs.
"From our point of view we have a reasonable structure in place. We may need to tweak the squad here and there but we like to buy young players who we can develop. We've signed [Javier] Hernández from Mexico and we may sign two more players at the most because that is all we need."
Ferguson's planning for next season has already begun, with Paul Scholes following Edwin van der Sar and Ryan Giggs in agreeing a new one-year contract. "We are delighted," Ferguson said. "His form this year indicates his ability and his enjoyment of the game are as strong as ever, and that's every reason to stay on. There was talk about him wanting to retire, but when you see his enjoyment in training and playing, you can see how much he wants to carry on."
