Manchester City are currently odds-on to land a sixth Premier League title in the space of seven seasons, although perhaps they will go odds-against if Pep Guardiola’s team suffer a defeat in Sunday’s derby. It’s not been plain sailing on the road recently, with Wolves pulling off a victory at Molineux before Arsenal were able to edge out the champions.
There’s also the fact that Manuel Akanji is missing suspended for this crunch clash, although one wonders how United’s defence is going to cope with Julian Alvarez and Erling Haaland, while Jeremy Doku has already endeared himself to the City faithful and looks set to cause problems for Diogo Dalot all afternoon.
Manchester United enjoyed a late comeback win over Brentford before the international break before managing to edge out Sheffield United and they’re now bidding for a third successive top-flight win. However, the 1-0 Champions League victory over FC Copenhagen was hardly convincing and it was down to Andre Onana to pull off a late penalty save.
The bookies think that a City win is likely and Haaland needs one more goal to be in double figures in the Premier League this season. Ruben Dias is likely to line up in central defence, while John Stones has recently returned to the first team and we’ll also see Ederson reinstated between the sticks for this contest.