Derby Day in Manchester: City vs United Match Preview

Once again, the rival Mancunian clubs are scheduled to duel this Sunday, March 3rd at the Etihad Stadium. This version of the fixture is critical as per usual, with the bragging rights of the city at stake, but both teams go into the weekend in good form while also vehemently competing for position in their respective places in the table; this paired with the regularly scheduled battle of pride and emotion of the Manchester derby begs to make for quite a contest on Sunday.

City charge into the weekend on a strong run of form. Going unbeaten in February with four wins in their last five league games, topped nicely with a 6-2 win in the FA Cup Round of 16 at Kenilworth Road against Luton Town. Since the rough patch they went through just before Christmas, the Citizens have cemented themselves in the title race, winning every league game since the loss at Aston Villa apart from a regretful 1-1 draw at home against Chelsea, a game that could’ve and probably should’ve been won as Erling Haaland was extremely and uncharacteristically wasteful in front of goal. But he’s put that game behind him and returned to his regularly, absurdly prolific goal scoring form, scoring the only goal in City’s last home game against Brentford and putting in five of the team’s six this past Tuesday against Luton. Alongside Haaland, Phil Foden and Kevin De Bruyne have starred for the Sky Blues. Foden in particular was key for City in the absence of both Haaland and De Bruyne over the Christmas and New Year period, taking the reigns of the number 10 position and affecting every game with great performances. But even since the return of the dynamic duo, he’s kept, maybe even raised his level; he scored five goals in February, including a hat trick against Brentford and the winning goal in last week’s fixture versus Bournemouth. De Bruyne, at that, returned from injury seamlessly, announcing himself with a game changing performance from the bench against Newcastle in January and carrying on to pick up 7 assists in the month of February; four of them supplying Haaland at Luton Town on Tuesday, the pair are firing on all cylinders going into Sunday.

Manchester United remain an inconceivable entity of sorts. Their form on the table suggests they’ve turned over a new leaf since the awfully rocky start to the season they had, and in some ways that’s true. The bright side is that the attackers are finding their feet, Rasmus Hojlund has long forgotten the days of his Premier League goal scoring drought, scoring in six consecutive league matches and netting five goals in four games in February. He and Marcus Rashford also look to be forming a fruitful and more understanding partnership in front of goal. Furthermore, Carrington academy graduate and wonderkid, Kobbie Mainoo, has been a revelation recently for United. He started February scoring an outrageous solo goal at the death against Wolves to win the game and he’s essentially become undroppable for Ten Haag, to undoubtable benefit for the team. His presence and patience on the ball is far beyond his spry 18 years of age and at times he clearly looks like the most seasoned of the United midfielders, which has been a relatively weak point for the team this season. Ten Haag’s tactics, especially defensively remain questionable despite United having a positive run of form. With four league wins in a row in February against Wolves, West Ham, Villa and Luton, the team still looked unconvincing and vulnerable, being particularly susceptible to the counter attack. One could say it all came to a head in their latest league game, at home to Fulham in which they lost 2-1 via an Alex Iwobi goal in the final minutes of added time, further compounded by a Hojlund muscle injury that’s reported to keep him out until the middle of March. 

City are the obvious favourites going into the derby, given their higher position in the league table and their sheer dominance over the fixture as of late. On top of that, City are playing on home turf and as mentioned, United’s firing talisman, Hojlund, will be missing for them. United, however will always and forever be motivated for the derby, looking to knock what they call their ‘Noisy Neighbours’ off their hill, so they will definitely make a game of this however they can; something that City coach, Pep Guardiola has warned his team against. Pep spoke to the BBC and said the team needs to focus on tactics rather than emotions. 

“What I learn from my experience in these types of games is to be calm, relax, don’t try and talk about many things” the manager said. “Just focus on tactics and do what you have to do to beat them, not about emotions –  because emotions will be there without doubt.”

City currently sit among the top of the table in second place, one point behind league leaders, Liverpool and one point atop last season’s title rivals, Arsenal; it goes without saying that at this point every game is crucial. They’ll hope to continue their trend of hitting peak form at spring time and at the moment they’re doing a good job of it, of the past 18 games in all competitions, they’re undefeated while winning 16 of those games. 

United don’t find themselves without a race to run either, as they make a push to finish within the Champions League places. The positive results from February see them within three points of fifth place Tottenham, whom however, have a game in hand. So just as their cross town rivals, United are in demand of as many points as they can get for this upcoming home stretch of the Premier League campaign. Manager Erik Ten Haag spoke to the team’s attitude going into the derby on Sunday. 

“Our form – we are also on a good run. The spirit is very good, we are united. Now we have to make a good game plan.”

“We will prepare well but our players are looking to it and I can smell it – I’m excited. We know we have to give everything and show a team performance.”

Positive vibes from the Man United camp. 

Sunday afternoon will surely be excited and whichever way it goes will likely have large implications at the top of the Premier League table.