Gary Neville admits Manchester United have a big week ahead of them as they attempt to overturn Manchester City's advantage in the Carling Cup semi-final before facing Arsenal in a crucial Premier League match on Sunday.
"The fact that we played a strong team in the Carling Cup against City shows how important the match was," said Neville, who was involved in much of the fallout from United's 2-1 defeat at Eastlands last Tuesday as his argument with his former team-mate Carlos Tevez, who scored twice for the hosts, escalated on an almost daily basis.
"We want to get a consistent run of performances now," United's club captain said. "At the moment we have to play a strong team to try to win every match and hopefully win trophies.
"We are getting to the business end of the season and we want to make sure we are competing in finals and competing for the championship.
"Nothing is won and lost in January, but at the moment Arsenal, ourselves and Chelsea are looking like the teams most likely to mount a championship challenge. It's not too late for teams behind us to put a run together. But there is a gap now between the top three and the rest and it can be very difficult to close such gaps."
On the looming trip to Arsenal, Neville added: "It's always difficult to go to the Emirates and Arsenal are a very good side in good form, so it's a big week for us and one for us to look forward to."
Despite Saturday's 4-0 thrashing of Hull, which saw United go top of the Premier League, Neville is still smarting from the defeat by City, during which he and Tevez exchanged gestures with Tevez later calling the 34-year-old "an idiot" and "a boot-licker".
"Our attacking play probably deserved more than one goal but the beauty of a two-legged tie is we live to fight another day," Neville wrote in the Times of Malta. "We conceded two goals, which was disappointing, but the great thing about this tie is we've got another opportunity to put it right on Wednesday. It's all to play for."