Manchester United face Manchester City in the second Manchester derby of the Premier League season this afternoon. The last time these two teams faced each other, City were the victors, going 4-0 up before Antony scored. City then went 6-1 up before Anthony Martial scored a goal and a penalty to give United some face in defeat. Despite the score and the result, it was a better outcome for United than it could have been.
United are now on an eight-match winning run, scoring three goals in each of their three matches, putting them in a much better position against City this weekend. In the last eight matches, United have scored 21 goals, conceding four and keeping five clean sheets. City’s form is good but in recent weeks Everton managed to get a 1-1 draw and on Wednesday evening in the quarter final of the Carabao Cup, Southampton knocked them out.
Pep Guardiola will have to change the mentality of his team ahead of this derby at Old Trafford which will see United use their current form to try and get one over them. Guardiola seemed to be rattled by Southampton, the bottom team in the Premier League knocking them out of the competition that they have been most successful in. It goes to show that form is temporary and even the teams that have world class players in every position can still lose.
Manchester United
De Gea;
Wan-Bissaka, Varane, Shaw, Malacia;
Casemiro, Fred;
Fernandes, Eriksen, Rashford;
Martial
Substitutes
Heaton; Lindelof, Maguire, Martinez; McTominay, Mainoo; Antony, Elanga, Garnacho
Manchester City
Ederson;
Walker, Akanji, Aké, Cancelo;
De Bruyne, Rodri, Silva;
Mahrez, Haaland, Foden
Substitutes
Ortega; Laporte, Lewis; Phillips, Gündogan, Grealish, Gómez, Palmer; Álvarez
United and City have met 51 times in the Premier League with United winning 24 matches, drawing nine matches and City winning 18. United have scored 74 goals, winning six penalties, scoring five. City have scored 73 goals, winning one penalty, not scoring it. United will need to step up their game in this derby after losing the last one 6-3. Their top four chances will rely on this at this time. Beating City, Crystal Palace and Arsenal will be key to that.
United have kept 18 clean sheets with City keeping 11. Discipline has been an issue in this fixture with United players shown 89 yellow cards and seven red cards and City players shown 108 yellow cards and one red card. United have done well this season under Ten Hag and the Dutchman will be pushing his side to continue the road that they are on. City will be tough to beat but United do owe them something and it is not as if they have not beat them before.
Billy Meredith, Denis Law, Brian Kidd, Terry Cooke, Peter Schmeichel, Andrew Cole, Carlos Tevez, Owen Hargreaves, Abbie McManus, Jane Ross, Aoife Mannion, Charlie McNeill (academy) and Jadon Sancho have played for both teams in Manchester. Law, Kidd, Schmeichel, Cole and Tevez are the only players on this list to have lifted the European Cup/UEFA Champions League with City never having achieved that feat in their short history.
Written by John Walker
