MANCHESTER derbies, on the red side of the city at least, have at times had their importance diminished by United's title rivalry with Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea. For Ryan Giggs however, getting one over on City has always held a special place in his heart.
Giggs, who grew up in Manchester and turned 35 years old yesterday, is a veteran of 27 such matches, scoring his first senior goal against the Blues as a 17-year-old back in 1991. That year, he burst into Alex Ferguson's side as an old-fashioned wing
er. Now, with age and experience on his side, the Wales international knows himself he is likely to do more damage at Eastlands in the first Mancunian clash this afternoon from a central midfield berth.
"I have not been an out-and-out winger for the last three or four years," he told the Manchester Evening News. "I enjoy playing in midfield. You are more involved and you get to see a lot more of the ball.
"It is certainly not alien to me and maybe the ability to move around is one of the things that has kept me playing for so long."
With Ferguson implying a new one-year contract at the season's end is in the pipeline for Giggs, the serial medal-collector has time to increase his already unmatched haul – and inflict some more woes on the light blue half of the city.
One thing is for certain though, if Giggs does find himself on the losing side this afternoon, he won't be venturing too far into the public eye for a few days.
"You are still aware the fans want bragging rights on Monday but you also want to win as players because, as we experienced last year, it takes a bit of time to get over losing a derby.
"If you don't get the right result you tend to stay in your house, just so the supporters don't have a chance to give you some stick."
United lost both of last season's fixtures to their neighbours, a Geovanni strike giving City a 1-0 win while Darius Vassell and Benjani Mwaruwari plundered goals in City's 2-1 win at Old Trafford. Ferguson, therefore, knows the importance of taming a side with ambitions of bursting into the Premiership's top four while also keeping up with Liverpool and Chelsea at the summit of the league.
The Scot, however, has other worries apart from the teams around him. With United already struggling to find a date for a Premiership clash with Fulham in their calendar, Ferguson has growing concerns over his side's potential fixture congestion. With a quarter-final in the Carling Cup added to the World Club Championships in Japan in December, he is already fearing a match pile-up akin to that which his friend Walter Smith at Rangers experienced last year.
"We're playing catch-up at the moment," he said. "We will have to make up two games and it will depend on our progress in the League Cup and the FA Cup.
"That could prove a minefield in terms of dates. But it depends how we go on against Blackburn in the League Cup because we've then got two semi-final dates and that's two midweek games.
"The availability of fixtures dries up and you're looking at the end of February or March. If you don't get them then you are talking about a Rangers situation from last year when they had eight games in 12 days or like when we lost the league in '92, four games in six days."
Manchester City, despite what looks to be a promising start to a tilt at the UEFA Cup, have no such fixture fears, and derby debutant Robinho believes his side can become as big as the Red Devils following their takeover by the Abu Dhabi United Group, which has seen the likes of Kaka show interest.
He said: "In football, nothing is impossible. Manchester City might be classed as a small club but in two or three years' time, who knows?
"Three or four years ago Chelsea were considered a small club, but now they are a big club. Anything can happen.
"The project here is very ambitious and Manchester City will grow very quickly over the next few years."
The forward pledged his future to the club, saying: "The only thing in my mind is to stay here for many years. Next year we will try our best to reach the Champions League."
Robinho had been expected to move to Chelsea during the transfer window but claims they undermined the move by putting a picture of a shirt bearing his name on their website before the deal was finalised.
"It was Chelsea's own fault," he continued.
"Everything would probably have been okay but Chelsea put that picture of me on their website and Madrid were upset about that.
"They didn't want to sell to Chelsea because they are in the Champions League and with me they would have been even stronger."
Robinho claims he was badly treated by Real after reports he would be a make-weight in the deal to take Cristiano Ronaldo to the Bernabeu, with the Brazilian going in the opposite direction.
"Things didn't end well in Madrid because the directors didn't behave properly," he added.
"I know what I'm worth and I don't feel I should be talked about as currency for someone else.
"Once a player finds out that he is seen as the bait in a part-exchange, how else can they feel? It's not the way to treat people."
