JAVI Garcia claims Manchester City will overhaul Manchester United at the top of the table provided they maintain the standards they set in Saturday's 3-1 win at Newcastle.

Garcia headed home his second goal as a City player to help Roberto Mancini's side remain within six points of their local rivals despite this month's derby defeat.

Last season, they overhauled an eight-point deficit in the final six weeks of the campaign, and with Saturday's first-half display in particular having represented one of their best performances for quite some time, Garcia feels City are more than capable of retaining their crown.

“If we maintain those standards I think we can chase down Manchester United,” said the Spaniard. “I don't know if it's the best half we have played, but we definitely played very well.

“If we play as well as that then we are going to be very difficult to stop. If we continue to have that attitude, we will be very hard to beat.

“The good thing about the Premier League is that anyone can pull off a surprise and there are other teams who can push up the league and challenge for the title. But if we finish above United, I think we will win the league.”

Robin van Persie's last-minute derby winner was a major blow to City's hopes of ending 2012 in pole position, but Saturday's success has boosted morale ahead of the Christmas programme.

City face Reading, Sunderland and Norwich before the turn of the year and will be confident of claiming maximum points.

“It's normal to be feeling down after a result like that (against Manchester United),” said Garcia. “But we had to lift our heads up. We had to continue to believe in ourselves and remain positive, and I think we have shown that against Newcastle.

“It was an important game after what happened against United. We had to show we could continue to have a winning mentality.”