Pablo Zabaleta has told Louis van Gaal that the balance of power in the city is changing and Manchester City are challenging Manchester United to be the dominant club.

City won the 168th derby 1-0 with a Sergio Agüero goal, his 12th of the season. Asked about the United’s manager’s pre-match claim that United were bigger than the champions, Zabaleta said: “All I can say is that Manchester City’s players and the owners are doing a big effort to be a top team not just in Manchester but also in the Premier League and in Europe, and probably it’s different history now than years ago where probably United was the main team in the city. Now it’s a bit different.”

After a dip in form that featured three games without victory the right-back is convinced the win over United can boost City’s season. “I think so. Those games are great when you win and especially because in the last three games we didn’t play well,” he said. “We didn’t get the results. We knew before the game it was just about winning three points here. We did it and we are very proud but nothing is done. Personally I think we are a much better team than we’ve shown – and we can do even better.”

City go into Wednesday’s Champions League home match with CSKA Moscow knowing they must win if they are to retain realistic hopes of qualifying from the group. “It’s another huge game,” Zabaleta said. “We were very unlucky the last time we played them. We drew and we were winning 2-0. We need a win because if not it’s going to be very hard to qualify for the next round.”

Of City scoring only once against United despite having a man extra after Chris Smalling’s red card he said: “One was enough. We are not scoring goals like last season where we were probably more clinical and sometimes when you don’t kill the game early you can feel the pressure like we did at the end.”