I said Manchester United were soft last year but I made an FA Cup promise vs Man City

Here we are again. The two Manchester clubs twist again in north London on Saturday, like they did last summer.

The chasm may be even wider than ever before, with Manchester City romping to a fourth successive league title and United finishing outside the European places – in eighth, their lowest ever Premier League finish – but the stakes will be exactly the same as they were 12 months ago.

United came as close as many expected them to on that balmy day at Wembley. If it hadn't been for the earliest of setbacks, Ilkay Gundogan scoring inside 60 minutes to stun David de Gea in the Reds' goal, it could have been different.

Bruno Fernandes hit back with a penalty before half-time but admitted afterwards that United had been caught napping early doors and never really recovered.

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Speaking to the BBC, he said: "We came back into the game, we started badly but came back into it and had good spells on the ball in the first half.

"After we scored, we had some good counters but didn't score. We conceded early in the second half and then still had other chances but we didn't [take them] and City deserved the win."

The next line from Fernandes was particularly telling and ought to be a warning to Erik ten Hag's side for this year's cup final.

He said: "We were too soft and gave up too much space for the first goal but it's an amazing strike. If players are tighter then maybe they can stop it but it's an amazing strike."

Anyone who is lax with their marking and "soft" in any way against this Man City side gets punished. And they are particularly dangerous early in games –