Anders Lindegaard believes Manchester United's impressive festive form is down to team spirit - unlike their neighbours across the city.
The Premier League leaders took 10 points from a possible 12 over Christmas and New Year to open up a seven-point gap between themselves and Manchester City.
And while Mario Balotelli was involved in a training ground bust-up with his manager Roberto Mancini, Lindegaard and his United team-mates were reaping the rewards of a positive atmosphere.
'The team spirit is as high as I can remember since I came here [in December 2010], he told MUTV.
'We have done tremendously well over the Christmas period and picked up some great results, only dropping points against Swansea - which was a game that we should have won in my opinion.
'We have done brilliantly and you can see that in the team spirit as well, people are happy and theres a good, friendly and funny atmosphere in the locker room. Its a joy coming into work at the moment.
'Training is not hard work during the Christmas period because we have so many games. We just come in and prepare for the next game and then we go again.
The games are obviously very hard, but the training in itself is not as hard as during other parts of the year.
'Mentally its a very hard period and I think the Christmas programme this year has been tougher than others while Ive been at United.
But its a good feeling to come out after New Years Day with a lot of good results, a good atmosphere and sitting at the top of the table. We can now focus on the next games and getting more good results.'
