Five changes are made by City for the Manchester derby.
Five players changed, from the starting lineup for the Manchester derby against Luton Town in midweek, according to Pep Guardiola. Ederson, Jeremy Doku, Rodrigo Phil Foden, and Ruben Dias are back in the starting lineup.
Ankush Pandey
Manu Akanji, Mateo Kovacic, Matheus Nunes, Stefan Ortega Moreno, and the injured Jack Grealish are making way.
REFORMATION
Based on the lineup for today, no tactical surprises should be anticipated. Kyle Walker and Nathan Ake, the right and left backs, will be ahead of goalie Ederson.
Rodrigo will serve in the center of defense alongside Kevin De Bruyne and Foden, with Dias and John Stones occupying the center defensive positions.
Erling Haaland will probably be in the middle, with Bernardo and Doku on the flanks. Of fact, Bernardo and Foden might begin in any of the aforementioned roles as either/or!
CITY’S HUGE MONTH
It's difficult to think of a more difficult schedule for City. United today, Liverpool away on Sunday, Newcastle United in the FA Cup, Arsenal at home, and Aston Villa at the Etihad a few days into April are all scheduled to take place.
Any team would find it an enormous undertaking, and you can never be sure what will happen or how it would affect our chances of taking home the hardware.
The ideal situation would be for us to win every match, which is something that a City team playing at its best would be more than capable of, but Pep Guardiola will stress that every match is a final and that we should only focus on the upcoming match, which is the Manchester derby.
The Reds have been erratic thus far this season, exhibiting both highs and lows, so it won't be clear until the very end of play which United showed up.
There is a lot of pressure to keep winning since, yesterday, Spurs, Villa, and Liverpool were all either drawing or trailing heading into the final ten minutes of their matches, but they all came out on top.
It seems unlikely that Arsenal will lose their Monday night match against Sheffield United, so three points this afternoon seem like the very minimum.
Positively, if any team is accustomed to this must-win mindset, it's Guardiola's City, who appear to relish the pressure!
STATS AND FACTS
- In their most recent Premier League encounter, City defeated Manchester United four times (L1), matching their record of thirteen victories (D3 L6).
- In the past two Premier League seasons, Manchester United has suffered defeats when visiting the Etihad Stadium, conceding 10 goals (4-1 in 2021–22 and 6-3 in 2022-23). The Red Devils' most recent extended run of consecutive league away losses to rival City occurred from August 1952 to September 1955 (four straight).
- No Premier League match in history has seen as many away victories as City vs. United (22, tied with Aston Villa vs. Liverpool). In fact, of the 54 games that will be played in the tournament 40 times or more, the Manchester derby has the highest percentage of away victories (42 %, or 22/53).
- In their last 54 home games across all competitions, City has scored. If they score here, it would match their club record of 55 straight home games scored between January 2012 and January 2014.
- In their last four Premier League games, City has kept three clean sheets—the same number as in their previous 20 games. For the first time since December 2021, they are trying to post three straight shutouts, but they haven't kept a clean sheet in their league matches against Manchester United in a campaign since 1973–74.
- Following their most recent loss to Fulham, Manchester United has now lost ten Premier League games this season. The only other seasons in which they have suffered more losses are 2013–14 and 2021–22 (both with 12).
- In his fifteen Premier League encounters with Manchester United, City manager Pep Guardiola has eight victories (D2 L5). Guardiola is the only manager to have won at least half of his meetings with the Red Devils (minimum of 10 matches), with Arsène Wenger being the only other manager to have ever had more victories over them in the tournament.
- Erling Haaland of City has scored five Premier League goals against Manchester United, more than any other team. In fact, Haaland is the only player in the competition with more Manchester derby goals for the Citizens than Sergio Agüero (8).
- In his last ten Premier League games for City, Phil Foden has contributed to nine goals, five of which he has scored and four of which he has assisted. He has contributed to 16 goals overall this season (9 goals, 7 assists), which is tied for most in a single league season.
- In this game, Bruno Fernandes, the captain of Manchester United, may make his 150th Premier League appearance. The Portuguese player has produced more chances than any other player in the tournament this season (74), but this term's goal or assist rate per 281 minutes is the lowest of his five campaigns.
TEAMS
CITY: Ederson, Walker (C), Dias, Stones, Aké, Rodrigo, De Bruyne, Bernardo, Haaland, Doku, FodenSubs: Stefan Ortega, Kovačić, Alvarez, Gómez, Gvardiol, Akanji, Nunes, Bobb, Lewis
MAN UNITED: Onana, Dalot, Lindelof, Evans, Varane, Casemiro, Mainoo, McTominay, Fernandes (C), Garnacho, RashfordSubs: Bayindir, Amrabat, Eriksen, Amad, Antony, Kambwala, Forson, Collyer, Ogunneye
