Fans will flock to Old Trafford en masse for the 191st Manchester derby on Sunday afternoon, as Manchester United butt heads with noisy neighbours Manchester City.
As things stand, Manchester United and Manchester City have contested 190 games, with the former winning 78 compared to the latter’s 59; 53 have ended in a draw. The two have jointly won 100 trophies, with United again leading the count, 67 to 33.
The previous fixture between the English behemoths was an FA Cup Final on June 3, 2023, with Manchester City claiming the win over their rivals Manchester United by a 2-1 scoreline. Their last league meeting, however, went in favour of Manchester United, who beat their adversaries 2-1 on January 14, 2023.
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However since the arrival of Pep Guardiola, Manchester City have won six Premier League titles in that time, United have never even challenged.
United have never finished above City in that time – they did finish level on points in 2015-16 but both were well behind eventual champions Leicester.
These are some of the issues that would decide the 191st derby as Guardiola and Erik ten Hag come up with plans to solve them
Rodri’s suspension
The recent three losses by Man City have coincided with Rodri’s suspension, coupled with Kevin de Bruyne’s latest lengthy injury absence. This has led to increased scrutiny and, for some, concern about what would happen if the Spain midfielder was missing for any significant length of time.
Kalvin Phillips remains a peripheral figure and of the two midfielders Guardiola spent £78m on this summer, Matheus Nunes is still to properly adapt following his deadline-day move from Wolves, while, after an excellent start to his City career, Mateo Kovacic’s form has dipped and he gave the ball away far too often in the defeat at Molineux.
Fellow new arrival Jeremy Doku has caught the eye but that has only drawn attention to Jack Grealish, who has only started two Premier League games this season, and none since he suffered a dead leg at Sheffield United in August so severe it left him on crutches.
Given Grealish ‘celebrated’ City’s historic Treble rather more extensively, publicly, than most of his team-mates, there have been suggestions he has fallen out of favour with Guardiola and Doku is now first choice for the wide berth on the left.
Mounting a challenge
Any problems City have are very much of the first world variety compared to United.
Ten Hag’s side are on a run of three successive wins. The victories over Brentford, Sheffield United and FC Copenhagen have certainly been dramatic thanks to a combination of very late goals and penalty saves, but they have also been viewed as simply papering over some pretty big cracks.
Haaland’s nine goals this term equal the combined tally of all United’s attacking players. Brazilian midfielder Casemiro is top scorer with four. Harry Maguire’s crucial header against Copenhagen on Tuesday equalled Marcus Rashford’s total for the season so far.
Rashford is not alone in being well off the pace, a long way off the levels that brought him a career-high 30 goals in all competitions last term. The sight of him running at the Copenhagen goal at pace on Tuesday then mis-controlling the ball, which ran out for a goal-kick, was slightly sad.
But at least the 25-year-old is threatening to make an impact. His England team-mate Mason Mount isn’t even doing that.
In seven appearances so far since his £55m move from Chelsea, Mount is yet to score and has one assist – in the EFL Cup against Crystal Palace – to his name. Against Copenhagen, while Christian Eriksen, Alejandro Garnacho and Anthony Martial were introduced, Mount remained on the bench.
Casemiro’s return?
With Casemiro available after injury and suspension, the temptation for Ten Hag must be to bring the Brazilian back against City, even though his performances this season, like Rashford’s, have been way off the standard he set last term.
What he has is vast experience and, as outlined, he also provides a goal threat.
But who plays with him? As with Nunes at City, Sofyan Amrabat is still adapting after his deadline day arrival, Scott McTominay seems to have more impact off the bench and the same can also be said of Eriksen.
Full-back option
But there are other problems too. Neither full-back position generates particular confidence – Diogo Dalot’s control was poor against Copenhagen and Sergio Reguilon was caught out of position too often – and while Rasmus Hojlund is working hard, he hasn’t looked a particular goal threat.
Summing up Tuesday’s game, Ten Hag said the first half was “no good” and finished off by saying his side had “a narrow escape” against Copenhagen.
Against significantly better opponents in City, they are unlikely to get away with the same kind of performance level again.
Clean sheet
The statistics do not weigh heavily in the visitors’ favour, though, as Man City have now gone six games without keeping a clean sheet in all tournaments and are now at risk of losing three consecutive Premier League matches for the first time in the Guardiola era; not since the Manuel Pellegrini days of 2016 have they endured such a barren run in the top flight.
Only Southampton and Crystal Palace have prevented Man United from scoring in a Premier League home fixture since the start of the 2022-23 season, but the hitherto stingy Red Devils defence remain without a top-flight clean sheet at Old Trafford this term, music to the ears of Erling Haaland and co.
