GW 12: Manchester City vs. Manchester United

The most interesting match from gameweek 12 will most definitely be the season’s first Manchester derby. With Manchester City having another fantastic season they would be expected to win this match but the passion and rivalry between these sides might cause Man United to rise above their current form and force something out of this City side. In the Premier league era Manchester United have won 21 of the 42 matches played between the teams with City only winning 13. Recently things have changed in Manchester though and since 2010 City have won 8 of the 17 meetings between them with United winning 6. This shows that City have been on the rise since the beginning of the Premier League and that they are finally starting to get the better of their rivals although Man United did win this same fixture last year.

Man City have started this campaign in superb fashion and sit top of the table after 11 gameweeks currently unbeaten with 9 wins. They played extremely well in  their last match against Southampton winning 6-1 and really just embarrassing them. With that win City now have played 4 Premier League games where they have scored 5 or more on their opposition and have won by three or more goals 5 times. This is incredible and it shows that their attack is incredibly fluid and can rip any team apart. They’ve also been very good against high quality opposition and have one 2 of their 3 games against teams who made the top 6 last season.

Almost every City player has the potential to cause danger but the player who should be singled out is Raheem Sterling. He has contributed to 11 goals this season and has only played in 9 of the matches so far with 6 goals and 5 assists which shows that he is both a goalscorer and a playmaker. He’s in great form and in his last 2 starts he has scored 2 and assisted 3. His last game was probably his best so far when he managed 2 goals and 2 assists as he was constantly ripping through the Southampton defensive line. Laporte will also be crucial for City and has been brilliant since arriving from Athletic Bilbao last January. He is the only City player to play every minute of this PL season proving how important he is to Guardiola and the rest of the team. He is currently ranked second for completed passes only falling behind pass master Jorginho. He has also made 8 tackles which is very good for a player who plays for a side who almost always have possession.

United have finally started to pick up their form and with a last minute goal against Bournemouth they have now won 3 and drawn 1 of their last 4 Premier League matches. The scoreline against Bournemouth wasn’t completely reasonable though, and Manchester United didn’t look comfortable in the match. They had the same amount of shots in the match and Manchester United only mustered one more shot on target. Bournemouth had a number of clear cut chances in the first half and it wasn;t until the second 45 that United started to get a grip on the game. United are now on level points with Bournemouth and sit in 7th place 9 points behind City.

United will need to perform well above their expectations to beat City in this one and a player who could help them achieve that is goalkeeper David De Gea. Compared to his brilliant season last year he has underperformed this year. He has only managed 1 clean sheet so far which is terrible considering he managed 18 over the course of last season. His save numbers have gone up though, from 3.1 a game to 3.6,  but this could be largely related to United’s poor defence this season. If United want to have any hope of beating this side De Gea will need to make some wonder saves to keep them out. Martial will also be an important player for United and he has now score 5 in his last 4 games. This means that he has contributed to 55.5 % of United’s goals over these last few games. Without his goals they would have managed 8 less points over this period which shows that his goals have been crucial to United picking their form back up.

Now onto the injury watch. Man City suffer a few injury problems for this one with De Bruyne, Otamendi and Gundogan all with problems but with their squad depth it shouldn’t hurt them too much. De Bruyne is guaranteed to be out for at least another 5 weeks with a bad knee injury. Otamendi and Gundogan are both possibilities for this match but neither of them have been regular starters when fit this season. United also have three important players out with injury. Valencia is still struggling with his long term knee injury but could return for this match. Fellaini and Lukaku both have suffered knocks, but Lukaku has a decent chance of making back to full fitness before the match. None of these problems are major as all of these players have been rested over the course of the season.

Man United desperately need this win but they don’t look ready for such a difficult task away from home. Even though United have looked better in recent gameweeks they haven’t played particularly well while getting their points. Man City should be able to capitalize on their poor defence who have already conceded 18 goals in the competition. Man City have been great against big teams and have kept clean sheets against strong attacking sides Arsenal, Liverpool and Tottenham. With United scoring less than Liverpool and Chelsea and the same as Tottenham you wouldn’t expect them to get a win. The only thing that might be able to save United for this game is the passion between this rivalry and how they might put in the extra effort to compete with their local rivals. I still don’t think this will be enough for United to grab the win and my predicted score is 2-1 to City.