Sir Alex Ferguson is spying the final Manchester derby as the key point in this season's Barclays Premier League title race.
United's 2-0 win over Stoke at Old Trafford on Tuesday night allowed them to move level on points with City, who lost to a goal from Red Devils old boy Darron Gibson at Everton.
It could prove to be a pivotal evening, however, with so many big matches to play, starting at Chelsea on Sunday.
Little wonder therefore Ferguson is not expecting things to really hot up until United square up to Roberto Mancini's men on April 28.
"This was obviously a significant victory but we are only on the last day of January," he said. "I always see March and April as the important months. We've got Manchester City in April for instance."
Ferguson was thankful to emerge unscathed from a difficult couple of days in which both his first-choice keepers were ruled out through injury.
However, a toothless display from Stoke meant 21-year-old rookie Ben Amos was largely untroubled as United cruised home thanks to penalties either side of the interval from Javier Hernandez and Dimitar Berbatov.
"It was a very good penalty," said Ferguson, of Hernandez's effort. "But he takes them for Mexico so it wasn't a problem. Dimitar thought he was going to take the first one so he took the second one and he scored too so we're pleased with that."