Manchester City welcome their old adversaries, Manchester United, to the Etihad Stadium with the Blues looking to end a run of two consecutive defeats in the Premier League. City lost at Brighton before the international break, while United got their first win of the season, courtesy of a 3-2 home win over newly promoted Burnley.
The Blues will be confident of getting a result against the Stretford Rangers but must do so without striker Omar Marmoush, who was injured whilst on international duty.
Rayan Cherki will also sit this one out as he has been sidelined for a couple of months.
City need the points to put them back near the top of the table, but also just to take the city bragging rights from the Reds – we don’t want their fans celebrating all the way back to London again.
As always, our team are here to give us their thoughts and opinions on the match. Here’s what we think this week.
Saul
The derby! Manchester will be blue once more. Expect a fired-up City side, Haaland en fuego and someone to step up in midfield. 3-1 City.
City 3-1 United
Will
Yes City are poor at the moment, but it’s hardly rosy over in Stretford either!
Bryan Mbeumo and Matheus Cunha look like tidy signings for the Reds, but the latter is injured for the trip to the Etihad.
Phil Foden and Josko Gvardiol returning to the side could make the difference for City. I actually expect them to play well and win. Perhaps even a clean sheet for Gianluigi Donnarumma on his debut?
City 3-0 United
Thomas
City still aren’t looking like their old selves just yet. But its the Rags at home, surely the lads won’t let us down. Do we get the debut of Donnarumma? Does Erling follow up his demolition of Moldova with a master class against the Stretford Rangers? Well, anyway, that’s what I’m going for.
City 5-1 yahnited
Pete
United almost always score at City and they probably will again. God I hate that about them. Hopefully, with Donnarumma in goal, they won’t but chances are they will. City can win this and end the rot before it even begins. I think City will win and once they get a couple of goals, the floodgates may open.
City 4-2 United
What happened against Brighton?
I think we’d all like to know that. City didn’t take their chances and Brighton did. It was poor from the Blues and we should never lose a game from a winning position, especially in the manner in which they did. But, it’s gone now, we can’t do anything about it, and we just have to win and make sure Manchester is Blue.
No one from our team predicted a Brighton win. Saul got the right score but the wrong result, but he still gets an extra two points for the correct number of goals.
Here’s the table:
