Carlos Tevez has revealed that Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini's praise for Manchester United striker Robin van Persie has increased his motivation.

Mancini recently claimed that the Dutch striker is proving to be the difference between his team and United this season.

"Those words were a motivation for the strikers," ESPNSoccernet quotes Tevez as saying.

"We know that we need to carry on fighting. It also happened last season that United lost some games and we were back on track, so we will keep doing our job.

"We can do it. There's a long way to go and a lot of games to play. We want to keep winning, to keep fighting for the title and I will try to help us to compete on both fronts, in the Premier League and FA Cup, and try to win both."

City are currently seven points behind leaders United in second place in the Premier League table.