Manchester City vs Manchester United Preview

Manchester City vs Manchester United Preview
Image result for man city vs man utd
Image from Independent.ie
It’s almost time. Manchester United aim to continue their winning run as they travel across Manchester to the Ethiad Stadium for the Manchester Derby on Sunday. It’s also a big game for Manchester City who are one of three sides that remain unbeaten in the Premier League, alongside Liverpool and Chelsea and a defeat could send them from first to third provided Chelsea and Liverpool win earlier that day. This fixture has provided so much drama, passion, excitement and goals, hopefully tomorrow will deliver similar results. 
Image result for lukaku and pogba
Image from The Daily Mail

Team news first; Marouane Fellaini made his return after a month out against Juventus and may start ahead of Nemanja Matic, who was relatively poor again for United and seems sluggish since suffering an injury just before the start of the season. Alexis Sanchez suffered a minor thigh injury against Juventus and is a doubt for the game and as is Paul Pogba, who missed training on Friday with a ‘little injury’ but it is likely he will be fit to face City. Romelu Lukaku returned to training on Friday and could return for the potentially injured Sanchez, but to be honest the team has played well without him and it might be worth putting him on the bench if he is fit to play and bring him on if necessary. Manchester City seem to only have one injury, being the injury suffered by Kevin de Bruyne against Fulham in the Carabao Cup Round of 16. He will be a big miss especially since he had only just returned from a long term injury and is reportedly out for roughly six weeks. 

David de Gea made some excellent saves against Juventus on Wednesday and needs to be up to his best again against Man City, especially with the leaky back four Manchester United currently have. Anthony Martial can score in the fifth league game running against Manchester City and score against the noisy neighbours for the first time in his United career and worry Kyle Walker who has been taking shots at Jesse Lingard earlier this week. Lingard himself may have to fight Juan Mata for his position in the side as Mata came on and changed the game against Juventus as he did against Newcastle earlier in October. While he may not track Benjamin Mendy back as well as Lingard, he opens up the midfield and finds pockets of space to play into. Raheem Sterling will be raring to go against a team he has yet to score against. 
It would be a genuine miracle if United can prevent City from scoring with a combination of City’s attacking prowess and United’s weaknesses at the back. The Red Devils have shown that they can beat anyone if they have the right mentality and although they did it against Juventus mid-week, I think Mourinho will bring home a hard-fought point and one that should be praised rather than criticised. This should be a cracker!
Predicted Lineup: De Gea, Young (c), Smalling, Lindelof, Shaw, Matic, Herrera, Pogba, Mata, Martial, Rashford

PREDICTED SCORE: 2-2

Author: TUD Author