Manchester United striker Danny Welbeck said the reception the new Premier League champions got on their open-top bus victory parade proves the city is not dominated by fans from the blue half of town.
A common misconception in footballing circles seems to be that people in Manchester support City and that it is only outsiders who cheer for United.
But that theory was blown out of the window by Monday's parade.
"The send-off was unbelievable. When we came under the bridge at Deansgate it seemed the whole town was painted red," Welbeck told MUTV.
"People were on scaffolding, hanging out of windows, on lamp posts, bus stops. I was just hoping the scaffolding wasn't going to fall down.
"All the United fans came together that day."
United had wrestled back the title from their cross-town rivals with four games to spare and Dutch forward Robin van Persie, one of the catalysts for this triumph, said that proves they were worthy winners.
"It is a long road. You do not win it in one week, it is over a whole year when you have to overcome lots of difficulties in games," Van Persie told MUTV.
"We work day-in, day-out on stuff you want to achieve in the game. If, in the end, you win the Premier League it is a massive feeling.
"It is not a tournament. You play 38 games, so to win it after 34 says it all. It shows that we were the ones who deserved to win it."
Having suffered eight years of frustration at Arsenal, where all he won was one FA Cup in 2005, Van Persie spoke of his delight at having joined a team of winners.
"This team is unbelievable. Every team of champions starts with a good atmosphere and the idea that every single person wants to share success and everybody wants to play their part in it," he said.
"That is how you achieve big things and win trophies. It is like a puzzle that needs to add up so that in the end, the final puzzle means trophies."
Source: AFP
