Former Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez has told Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini to ignore Sir Alex Ferguson's taunts. Manchester United boss Ferguson has already kicked off the 'mind games' with Mancini.

Benitez said: "As a manager you need to worry about your job and your team - not the mind games.

"People are talking about mind games with Man U and City. Both teams are very good teams and if City win their next match 5-0 people will say Mancini is not affected by the mind games. If they lose it's 'oh - the mind games'.

"When you have a lot of foreign players normally they don't read the newspapers so the mind games for them are nothing.

"I don't think that it's important or makes a big difference. The main thing is if you have a good team you can win all the mind games, if you don't have a good team you can't.

"I think it [the title race] will be tough until the end. City have enough quality and United have the confidence now and the experience."