Erik ten Hag says he can ‘smell’ the excitement in the Manchester United camp ahead of Sunday’s Etihad derby.

United face Manchester City needing a win to boost their hopes of Champions League qualification after losing at home to Fulham last weekend.

Rather than fearing a team who are still on course to repeat their Treble success last season, however, Ten Hag believes his squad are relishing the challenge.

‘The players are looking forward to it, I can smell it when I am around here,’ said the United boss at Carrington, adding that Bruno Fernandes and Raphael Varane are expected to be fit after coming through Wednesday night’s FA Cup win at Nottingham Forest.

‘Our form, we are also on a good run and the spirit is very good. We are united, we have the togetherness to make a good game plan. We have done it before against City, lately against Liverpool.

‘They have a good team but there are more good teams. They have won in the last season everything, so we know the challenge but also Liverpool has a very good team and we like the challenges.’

New United co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe said last week that it’s United’s mission to knock City off their perch, and Ten Hag expects his team to raise their game in the way other teams do against United.

‘So I think that (Ratcliffe’s comment) has nothing to do with each other but we want to win every game, that is always our mentality and our approach in every game,’ he said.

‘We always want to play against the best. You can also see that the opposition get their best outputs against Manchester United and maybe this game is the other game around. We know we have to give everything and show a team performance if you want to get a result. So if you do it, it is possible.’

However, Ten Hag doesn’t believe that Sunday’s result will define United’s bid to finish in the Champions League places this season. ‘No, because there are many more games to play,’ he added.

‘After City come many more games. We know we have to catch up but there are also a lot more games to catch up and to get in the right position.’