Pique on official site

At this club you always have to be ready to come into the side, and I’m hoping that I can play my part over the busy Christmas and New Year period. For players like myself, it’s an excellent chance to help the team, but also to show what I can do.

I’m loving every minute of being involved in the first team squad. And it’s not just about playing in the games either, even just travelling with the team and having a laugh in the dressing room is great. Of course, training every day with some of the best players in the world helps to make you a better player. I certainly feel like I’m learning from every single one of them every day.

Rio [Ferdinand] and Vida [Nemanja Vidic] are two players in particular who have helped me a lot. Sometimes it’s the finer details and the little bits of advice that make you a better player. I would say my style is more similar to Rio’s mainly because we are virtually the same height. I also like being on the ball and bringing it out of defence in the way that Rio does so I’m probably more like him. That’s nothing against Vida though – he’s showed this season that he’s one of the best players in the league.

Our defence faces another test on Sunday, when Everton come to Old Trafford. They are always tough opponents, especially this season because David Moyes has a really strong squad of players. I know all about Mikel Arteta through Spain’s U21s. He’s a very talented attacker and someone we’ll need to watch out for. But, everyone inside the camp is confident we can get the right result. We played very well defensively at Goodison Park earlier in the season and managed to get a 1-0 win thanks to Vida’s header. I’d settle for the same again this weekend to start the Christmas period off in style.