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The Manchester Derby is always an encounter that captures the imagination of football punters, but this match throws up so many questions and will be the most fascinating match between these two great clubs for a very long time.
The wheels have most definitely fallen off Pep’s bus, but can he stop the rot in a match that is so important to City fans.
As for Ruben Amorim, consecutive defeats against Arsenal and Forest have put the damper on his encouraging start as the Man Utd manager, so will he be able to work his magic and claim the most important of victories for Reds all over the world?
Man City could only draw away at Crystal Palace on Saturday, a match they would usually be expected to win, so the meeting on Sunday will be just as much a battle of mental strength as footballing skills.
Odds and Predictions
We were surprised when we first saw how the top football betting sites had priced this match up. Man City are the 1.50 favourites, which is very skinny, in our opinion. The odds on Man Utd are 5.50, and the draw is a massive 4.75.
Something you should remember is that this is a Derby. Form and predictions often goes out of the window in matches like this and when you add to the fact that Man City are on a terrible run of form, odds of 1.50 on them to win the match is a bet that we wouldn’t touch with a barge pole.
We do like those odds of 4.75 for the draw, so that will be the first one of our tips, and for correct score enthusiasts, a scoreline of 1 – 1 at 10.0 is definitely worth a small investment.
Another bet that interests us is in the Double Chance market, ‘Draw or Man Utd’, at those odds we believe that this is an attractive wager.
Comparison and Statistics
Man City and Man United have faced each other head-to-head 192 times in their history.
Man United have won 79 of these H2H matches, and Man City have won 60, with 53 matches ending in a draw.
The last 5 matches between the two teams have been pretty evenly matched, with both teams winning two matches and one ending in a draw.
| Past Meetings | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 Aug 2024 | manchester-city | 1-1 | manchester-united | Community Shield |
| 25 May 2024 | manchester-united | 2-1 | manchester-city | FA Cup Final |
| 29 Oct 2023 | manchester-united | 0-3 | manchester-city | Premier League |
| 03 Jun 2023 | manchester-city | 2-1 | manchester-united | FA Cup Final |
| 14 Jan 2023 | manchester-united | 2-1 | manchester-city | Premier League |
Expected Line Ups
Rico Lewis will miss this match because of the harsh red card decision against Palace, which is a shame for City because he was just starting to hit some great form.
DeBruyne and Haaland showed glimpses of their mouth-watering link-up play in the same match, so let’s not forget that even in this poor run of form, Manchester City has a squad that most Premiership teams can only dream of.
For United, Fernandes is as good as he has ever been, as he proved with that wonderful goal against Forest, and Mainoo is showing why he was picked for the England squad in the summer.
Manchester City (4-3-3): Ortega; Walker, Dias, Gvardiol, Grealish; Gundogan, Bernardo, De Bruyne; Savinho, Nunes, Haaland.
Manchester United (3-4-2-1): Onana; Yoro, De Ligt, Martinez; Amad, Mainoo, Ugarte, Dalot; Fernandes, Garnacho; Højlund.
How Will the Season Pan Out
As it stands, Man City are in 4th place and United in 13th, so it would be fair to say that both teams have not had the start to the season that they hoped for.
We can’t see City challenging Liverpool in the title race, so a Champions League place is the best that they can hope for at the moment, whilst for Man Utd, if they can get a run of form together under Ruben Amorim, the goal of a top-four place must be something that they aspire to, for the sake of their fans.
