Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer believes today's Premier League match at champions Liverpool will be a test of his team's title credentials.
Leaders United have 36 points from 17 games, three more than second-placed Liverpool before the blockbuster clash at Anfield and Solskjaer backed his team to extend their advantage with a victory on the back of their superb form.
Solskjaer's side are unbeaten in 11 league games and have dropped only four points in that spell.
"We know that we can beat anyone, anywhere on any given day. So to be able to go into a game like this, feeling if we play to our best that we can win, is a good feeling," Solskjaer told reporters.
"It's a test and reality check for where we are really at because Liverpool at Anfield is one of the great challenges. We have won many tight games, scored a few goals in injury time."
Liverpool have not lost at home in the league since April 2017 and Solskjaer is aware of the challenge United face, having beaten the Merseyside club only once in their last 10 meetings.
"We have not really set the world alight too many times. To win away at Anfield you really need to be at your best level. I would rather be on top and have the points than chasing," Solskjaer said.
"But we are the challengers, we are the hunters chasing the champions. It's over the course of a long season and they're the ones that everyone would like to beat."
United are top of the Premier League table after New Year's Day for the first time since Alex Ferguson's glittering dynasty ended with his retirement in 2013, since when they watched first Manchester City and then Liverpool disappear into the distance.
It is one thing leading the pack in January, however, and today's trip to champions Liverpool will provide the acid test for a United revival that few saw coming earlier this season.
The clash promises to be a cracker, even if played in a silent stadium rather than the cauldron of noise which is normally the case for the biggest fixture in English football.
United, England's most decorated club with 20 league titles, start the game three points clear of second-placed Liverpool after grinding out a 1-0 victory at Burnley.
Their position hardly seemed possible back in early November when time appeared to be running out for Solskjaer with the club languishing in 15th spot in the table. A few weeks later United crashed out of the European Champions League after defeat by RB Leipzig and the vultures were circling again.
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp said he was not worried about whether the result of their top-of-the-table clash with United would have a say in the title race. United and defending champions Liverpool, the two most successful sides in the division, are separated by three points.
However, Klopp said he was not worried about their home record or United stealing a march in the title race as there was still a "long way to go" in the season with third-placed Manchester City also in the running.
"Winning a football game, winning against United is enough in itself, it's not necessary that there's a special element that we have a home game and we want to win," Klopp told reporters.
"There's no extra add-on in the game because they are in the situation they are. They deserve the points they have so far and we have ours.
"Manchester City is one game behind and they're very close as well ... We don't constantly think about other teams. We just try and win football games and United are good, they always were."
Klopp had already stoked the fires before the derby when he said earlier this month that United won more penalties in two years than he had in 5 years at Liverpool.
United forward Marcus Rashford said former manager Jose Mourinho had helped him become more "savvy" in the box to win penalties but Klopp said he had never advised his players to do the same.
"I can 100% honestly say I've never mentioned anything like this to any player I've worked with," Klopp said while explaining how he felt hard done by when Sadio Mane was denied a penalty in the 1-0 loss at Southampton.
"It's not the player who should make the decision whether it is a penalty or not, it is the referee."
Rashford said he had been denied several penalty claims while working under Mourinho and that the Portuguese had told him he had to become more aware in the box.
"Jose said, 'If you're not savvy about the way you do it, then you are not going to get given it'," Rashford told reporters at the Football Writers' Association 2021 tribute award on Thursday.
Mourinho left United in 2018 and since Solskjaer's first league match in December of that year they have been awarded 27 Premier League penalties - more than any other team.
"As a forward line, we want to go and score goals," he added. "There is no way you are going to let somebody take the ball off you, so for me it is just a case of us wanting to score goals and the teams wanting to defend goals - and you know, penalties can happen."
Meanwhile, City manager Pep Guardiola said his team have done well to claw their way back into the title race but his first order of business is to ensure Crystal Palace do not earn another result against his side at home.
Palace have recorded a rare victory and a draw in the last two seasons on their trips to the Etihad Stadium and Guardiola said he was wary of their defensive resilience having held in-form Arsenal to a
0-0 draw on Thursday.
"The first part of the season was exciting. Every season when you are a contender in March or April it's so exciting. In my head, and hopefully for the players, it is Crystal Palace.
"They defend so well, we saw that against Arsenal. They were able to control much of the game. It was tough in recent seasons when we lost and drew." Palace have won only once in their last seven games but Guardiola said every team in the league has suffered a slump at some point this season.
"All the clubs have had their ups and downs, this season more than ever," Guardiola said.- Reuters
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