Under the Catalan, City have finished above United each campaign he has been in charge, winning the title twice, finishing runners up and he will take his team to Old Trafford 15 points clear with only 11 games remaining (United 10).
“I never expected this position in previous seasons, to have this distance against United in three or four years,” said Pep.
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The quality of United is huge and what the club expect is getting closer to the teams above them, but at the same time they are working to improve – Manchester City wants to improve too.
“The distance is what it is but you don’t deny the quality.”
Pep also said allowing Ole Gunnar Solskjaer the time to build a team is the right way forward for United.
“Always I believe the managers and the clubs need time to implant and build something with the manager they believe in.
“Unfortunately the results can break that process. I’m not there, I’m not part of United but what I feel is people believe in Ole and he’s doing a really good job.
“Sometimes it’s about how the players follow the manager and in the good moments he has had an incredible impact then it dropped a bit but on both sides, they were stable.
“They score a lot of goals, create chances and concede few. United, there is no doubt about it, every season they have a good team.”
