Manchester United hunted down Newcastle in 1996 - can they catch City from the same position in 2018?

It’s 1996 and Manchester United are 12 points behind the Premier League leaders after 23 games gone. Fast-forward to the end of the season and United finish the season as champions again – and by four points at that.

That 1995/96 season was memorable for comments off the pitch, as well as on it, from Alan Hansen’s infamous “you can’t win anything with kids” after Alex Ferguson heralded his ‘Class of ‘92’ into the first team after some big-name departures, to Kevin Keegan’s “I’d love it if they beat them! Love it!” meltdown on live television.

Newcastle United spent 212 days at the top of the Premier League that season – the most of any team without being crowned champions – but a slump of four defeats in six games ultimately cost them.

It’s now 2018 and Manchester United are again 12 points behind the Premier League leaders after 23 games gone. Can the impossible comeback repeat itself 22 years later?

Manchester City were actually relegated from the top flight in 1996, but in 2018 they are the team who are in command of a 12-point lead, and the team United are hoping will self-destruct under the pressure of leading for so long. Pep Guardiola’s side have been top ever since 16 September.

The gap was, for a matter of hours, down to nine points on Saturday post United’s 1-0 away win over Burnley and prior to City’s 3-1 victory against Newcastle, but Nemanja Matic will not be heading over to the history section of the Premier League library too quickly.

“It’s going to be hard because Man City are a very good team,” Matic said when posited with the similarities between this season and 1995/96. “They have a lot of good players.

“We will see if they can drop some points, if they make some mistakes. But we cannot think about them, we have to think about ourselves and working hard to win games. We will see what happens between now and the end, anything can happen.”

What is omitted from the likeness of 2018 to 1996, however, are the differences, and that is Manchester City are a very different team to what Newcastle were.

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City are chasing their third league title in six years while Newcastle were after their first in 69 barren years. When you have the heat of a Ferguson-coached United in the second-half of the season gunning you down on top of that history, the pressure can be too much to handle.

Guardiola is not weighed down by history, or a relentless winning machine in second place – not at this moment, anyway – so it is hard to see as happy an ending for the red half of Manchester as in 1996. And as disappointing a one for the blue half, for that matter.

But should City stumble, Matic insists United will be there to pick up apart the bones of their title charge.

“For us it’s more important win game by game. We have to wait to see what they are going to do. We know the gap is big, but we will fight until the end.”