Alongside Haaland and De Bruyne, who is named skipper, Ederson, Manuel Akanji, Nathan Ake, Rodrigo, Bernardo Silva and Riyad Mahrez also come into Pep Guardiola’s starting eleven from the side that began Wednesday’s Carabao Cup quarter-final at Southampton.
From the eleven that started at the St Mary’s Stadium, Stefan Ortega, Sergio Gomez, Aymeric Laporte, Kalvin Phillips, Ilkay Gundogan, Jack Grealish, Julian Alvarez and Cole Palmer all revert to the bench.
Central defender John Stones was deemed unavailable for selection for this afternoon’s trip to Old Trafford.
Line ups
UNITED: De Gea, Wan-Bissaka, Shaw, Varane, Malacia, Fred, Casemiro, Eriksen, Fernandes, Rashford, Martial.
Subs: Heaton, Lindelöf, Maguire, Martínez, Antony, Elanga, McTominay, Mainoo
CITY XI: Ederson, Walker, Akanji, Ake, Cancelo, Rodri, De Bruyne, Bernardo, Mahrez, Foden, Haaland
Subs: Ortega, Phillips, Gündogan, Grealish, Laporte, Alvarez, Gómez, Palmer, Lewis
Formation
City are again expected to be deployed in our tried and trusted 4-3-3 line-up.
With Ederson the familiar figure in goal, the Brazilian keeper will be shielded by a back four of Kyle Walker, Manuel Akanji, Nathan Ake and Joao Cancelo.
Rodrigo is again expected to act as the holding midfielder with skipper Kevin De Bruyne and Bernardo Silva also in the engine room.
Up front, Erling Haaland will form the centre point of our attacking trident with Riyad Mahrez and Phil Foden completing our exciting forward line.
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However, as always with City, such is our tactical flexibility and fluidity that we could change shape as the course of the game progresses.
500 up
This afternoon’s derby clash with be Pep Guardiola’s 500th game of his illustrious top-flight managerial career.
The Catalan has taken charge of 152 in La Liga with Barcelona, 102 in the Bundesliga with Bayern Munich, and this will be his 246th in the Premier League in charge with City.
Guardiola has won 379 of his 499 games to date (76% - D68 L52), with this the most wins and best win rate (100+ games) of any manager in Europe’s big-five leagues since Guardiola’s first top-flight season in 2008-09.
Pep also boasts a fine record in derby clashes at Old Trafford since taking charge at City in the summer of 2016.
Guardiola has won six competitive Manchester derbies at Old Trafford, twice as many as at the Etihad Stadium.
● Manchester United have lost more Premier League home games against City than they have versus any other opponent (8), while no side has beaten the hosts more often overall in the competition than City (18, level with Chelsea and Liverpool).
● City are looking to complete the Premier League double over Manchester United for the sixth time, which would be more often than any other side in the competition’s history (Liverpool also 5).
● United have conceded 12 goals in their last three Premier League meetings with City, including six in their meeting at the Etihad in October. It’s as many goals as they’d shipped against the Citizens in their 12 previous meetings combined.
● This is the earliest into a calendar year the Manchester Derby has been played in the Premier League since 2006, when City won 3-1 at the Etihad on January 14.
● Following their 6-3 win against United in October, City are looking to equal or break their record number of league goals scored against their rivals in a season, scoring eight against them in 1954-55 (3-2 home, 5-0 away). The most goals that United have conceded against an opponent in a Premier League season is nine against Liverpool in 2021-22.
● Since and including their win over Liverpool on August 22nd, no team has won more points in the Premier League than United (35), winning 11 of their 15 games in this time (D2 L2). They had lost their four league games before this.
● Both Erling Haaland and Phil Foden scored hat-tricks for City in our 6-3 win over United in the reverse fixture. The last player to score in both Premier League meetings for City against United in a season was Sergio Agüero (2014-15), and the last Englishman to do so was Shaun Wright-Phillips (2003-04), while no City player has ever scored 2+ goals in both league meetings.
● Marcus Rashford has scored in his last three Premier League appearances for United and is looking to score in four in a row for the first time since January 2019. However, he hasn’t scored in any of his last five appearances against City in the competition, managing just one shot on target in these games.
● Against Chelsea last time out, Riyad Mahrez scored City’s 50th Premier League goal by a substitute under Pep Guardiola (excl. own goals), with only United (57, excl. own goals) having more goals by substitutes in the competition since 2016-17. Mahrez has scored nine of those goals, the most of any substitute in Guardiola’s entire managerial top-flight career.
