The Premier League champions arrive at the City of Manchester Stadium yet to drop a point and having scored a hatful of goals, but de Jong says there is no reason City can’t make it three wins on the bounce against Carlo Ancelotti’s men.
“The fans can do a lot for us,” he said. “At home, they can be the twelfth man from the first minute onwards. That will be a big help and we expect a lot from them tomorrow.
“Everybody knows what happened last season. It was a special game for the club and the players. We are all looking forward to playing this game.”
With the Blues completing the league double over the Pensioners at Stamford Bridge in the return fixture, de Jong believes City may start with a psychological edge.
“They lost both matches against us last season, so they will be coming here to try and win, we are aware of that, but they will know we can more than match them if we’re on the top of our game,” he said. “They will give it 100%, as they have the mentality of champions.
If you read the papers and listen to what their players are saying, then you know that that this is their biggest test yet - and that is a good thing - because it means that everyone is taking us seriously
...Nigel de Jong
“We’ll need to be at our best to beat them and we have some catching up to do. We are on eight points and they have fifteen, so there is a gap of seven points already. If we win this game we will close that gap a little, which is important.
“It is only September so anything can happen over the season. We need to win continuously so that we can remain in the top four. It doesn’t matter who comes here, whether it’s Chelsea or a smaller team, we need to win every game.”
