[Lucky McLuckerson]

...................VS........................

Date: Sunday, October 02 2022
Kickoff Time: 1400 Hrs BST
Venue: Etihad Stadium, Manchester

League standings and form guide

5. Manchester United: LWWWW
2. Manchester City: DWWDW


Previous League Meetings

Manchester City 4—1 Manchester United

Manchester United 0—2 Manchester City

Manchester City 0—2 Manchester United

Manchester United 0—0 Manchester City

Manchester United 2—0 Manchester City


All-Time League Record

Manchester United wins: 65
Manchester City wins: 49
Draws: 52


Pre-Match Pressers

Erik ten Hag




Josep Guardiola Sala





Team News

Manchester United

Brandon Williams and Harry Maguire ruled out. Marcus Rashford, Anthony Martial, Donny van de Beek, Martin Dúbravka and Aaron Wan-Bissaka doubtful.


Manchester City

John Stones and Kalvin Phillips ruled out. Aymeric Laporte doubtful.


Know the opposition

Manchester City Football Club (nicknamed City, The Citizens, and The Sky Blues), are a professional football club based in Manchester, England. City were founded in 1880 as St. Mark's (West Gorton), before being renamed as Ardwick Association Football Club in 1887, and finally Manchester City in 1894 - and the origins can be traced back to members of St. Mark's Church of England, West Gorton — who founded the football club that would become known as Manchester City, for largely humanitarian purposes. Two church wardens sought to curb local gang violence and alcoholism by instituting new activities for local men, whilst high unemployment plagued East Manchester, specifically Gorton. All men were welcome to join, regardless of religion.

The team's first recorded match occurred on 13 November 1880, and City gained their first honors by winning the Second Division in 1899 — with it came promotion to the highest level in English football, the First Division. In the seasons following the FA Cup triumph of 1904, the club was dogged by allegations of financial irregularities, culminating in the suspension of seventeen players in 1904, including captain Billy Meredith, who subsequently moved across town to Manchester United. Almost half a century later later, a City team inspired by a tactical system known as the Revie Plan reached consecutive FA Cup finals again, in 1955 and 1956; just as in the 1930s, they lost the first one, to Newcastle United, and won the second. The club continued to challenge for honors throughout the 1970s, finishing one point behind the league champions on two occasions and reaching the final of the 1974 League Cup.

Prior to the takeover by the Abu Dhabi United Group in 2008, the club had enjoyed moderate levels of success through their history — however, since the start of the current decade, City have been buoyed by the signings of Sergio Agüero, Yaya Touré, David Silva, Vincent Kompany — and have emerged as perpetual title contenders Vincent Kompany winning the league 5 times in 9 years and repeatedly finishing in the Top 3. City play their homes games at the Etihad Stadium, and their biggest rivals are neighbors and opponents for the game, Manchester United.


Referee

Michael Oliver.


Familiar Faces

N/A.​

 

[Samid]

All well and good beating Liverpool and Arsenal but this will be Erik's first real test.

 

[croadyman]

All well and good beating Liverpool and Arsenal but this will be Erik's first real test.

Monumentally tough task

 

[caid]

I hope we keep our heads up. It'll be a tough match and were not ready for it. Stay in the match and keep it competitive and i'll be happy.

 

[horsechoker]

Erling Haaland

 

[V.O.]

October? Feck off.

 

[caid]

Erling Haaland

never heard of him

 

[SuperiorXI]

They are going to dominate us, our only hope is on the break. If they score early it will be a long afternoon.

 

[TheNewEra]

Biggest test of the season, no other team comes close.

Haaland isn't the concern though, it's the supply to him. Winning the midfield is the biggest thing in this game.

 

[cyberman]

We’ve gone there and beaten better City teams than this

 

[Hugh Jass]

Going to be a long afternoon or whatever time it is on. Our best bet is to sit back and hit them on the counter.

 

[Relevated]

Going to be a long afternoon or whatever time it is on. Our best bet is to sit back and hit them on the counter.

We're gonna beat them

 

[little.triangles]

Martinez will do a number on Haaland.

I hope the front three will be Sancho-Rashford-Antony. There will be few chances for us in this game, and we'll have to make them count.

 

[jymufc20]

We’ve gone there and beaten better City teams than this

Us with arguably worse teams and a worse manager, bring them on.

 

[bosnian_red]

Hopefully no injuries over the international break, will be a tough game though no matter what. Hopefully we can pull a rabbit out of the hat here! Going to assume Rashford will be fine but Martial won't be ready to start/will be bench at best.

De Gea
Dalot Varane Martinez Malacia
McTominay Eriksen
Antony Bruno Sancho
Rashford
​

Casemiro and Martial to be subs to come in and give us more control.

 

[always_hoping]

Long break to this game not sure will it be a help or hindrance. Either way a true test to see how much the United defence has really improved.

 

[tomaldinho1]

They seem more vulnerable this season so let’s see.

The build up will be almost exclusively focused on the height difference between Haaland and Martinez, I can even imagine Sky having some kind of side by side image to really push the narrative.

 

[Belisarius]

October? Feck off.

I mean really! In a season that's compressed by a World Cup in December we don't play a premier league game between Sept. 4th and Oct. 2nd. Unreal.

 

[moses]

I mean really! In a season that's compressed by a World Cup in December we don't play a premier league game between Sept. 4th and Oct. 2nd. Unreal.

It's madness, we'll be settling fixtures with rock, paper, scissors by April

 

[Heinzesight]

Goal 700 for Ronaldo incoming.

 

[MyOnlySolskjaer]

Feels good going to a game when I feel we're quite defensively solid.

 

[Gentleman Jim]

City have many great moments but few great games so far this season.
I think we will improve as the season progresses but if United show up and City are over reliant on KDB and Haaland in this game you have a decent chance of getting a result.

 

[Wheato]

Standard rope a dope game. Sit back, defend well, hit them on the break and score from our minimal shots on goal. We are nowhere near being able to play them off the park, so I'm happy to play to our strengths.

 

[RuudTom83]

Got to play them twice a season and its only 6 points...won't matter much at the end of the league...so all I ask is United don't shit the bed from the first whistle.

Just play the match, compete and enjoy the challenge.

 

[Djemba-Djemba]

I know it's a lot down to the postponed matches and all that but having Liverpool Arsenal and City in your first 7 League matches is a tough start.

 

[Gentleman Jim]

I know it's a lot down to the postponed matches and all that but having Liverpool Arsenal and City in your first 7 League matches is a tough start.

It is indeed but teams with expectations of being involved in the race for trophies at the end of the season often start off a little slowly whereas the lesser teams can start well as they like to get points on the board so that they're not immediately getting the pressure of being in a relegation scrap.
Personally I like to get a couple of tougher teams out of the way early in the season.

 

[croadyman]

They seem more vulnerable this season so let’s see.

The build up will be almost exclusively focused on the height difference between Haaland and Martinez, I can even imagine Sky having some kind of side by side image to really push the narrative.

Just hope we have learnt lesson from Brentford

 

[croadyman]

Worrying how little time we are going to have on training pitch before this game. Most internationals won't be back until probably three days before match.

 

[calodo2003]

Actually looking forward to this game.

 

[Dominos]

Post international break is a tough one to predict because it's so long between games you almost don't know what sort of form and momentum each team are carrying into the game. Even more so with the cancelled fixtures before the international break.

City at their best can suffocate you so you can't get the ball and can't get out your own half when you do win it back. However watching City this season they have definitely looked defensively vulnerable in plenty of games, and some teams have been able to hit them in transition and play through them. Watching them against Dortmund the other night they were poor for 80 minutes and I couldn't help but feel if Dortmund had more about them in attack they'd have scored more.

And we know ETH has the correct pragmatic in these big games, we've shown our quality on the counter against Liverpool and Arsenal.

If everyone is fit I'm weirdly confident. Rashford being back will be very important and Martial's return would be a boost as he's had a couple of great performances at the Etihad and they're our 2 best counter attackers.

A feeling most people will have going in is Haaland is almost guaranteed to score any game he plays, so you go into the game thinking you need at least 2 to win as Haaland will get a goal. First goal in the game will be crucial as if City score first we'll have to open up and start taking more risks which could be bad news.

 

[Tyrion]

All well and good beating Liverpool and Arsenal but this will be Erik's first real test.

I heard this before and I don't really get it. This is arguably the best team in the world. We can fail to beat them and still be very good. Arsenal is closer to our level (right now) and are more likely to be our competition by the end of the season.

 

[croadyman]

Post international break is a tough one to predict because it's so long between games you almost don't know what sort of form and momentum each team are carrying into the game. Even more so with the cancelled fixtures before the international break.

City at their best can suffocate you so you can't get the ball and can't get out your own half when you do win it back. However watching City this season they have definitely looked defensively vulnerable in plenty of games, and some teams have been able to hit them in transition and play through them. Watching them against Dortmund the other night they were poor for 80 minutes and I couldn't help but feel if Dortmund had more about them in attack they'd have scored more.

And we know ETH has the correct pragmatic in these big games, we've shown our quality on the counter against Liverpool and Arsenal.

If everyone is fit I'm weirdly confident. Rashford being back will be very important and Martial's return would be a boost as he's had a couple of great performances at the Etihad and they're our 2 best counter attackers.

A feeling most people will have going in is Haaland is almost guaranteed to score any game he plays, so you go into the game thinking you need at least 2 to win as Haaland will get a goal. First goal in the game will be crucial as if City score first we'll have to open up and start taking more risks which could be bad news.

Need to keep him down to a goal,would even say two when you look at Palace & Forest hattricks.

 

[Strelok]

Any news on Rashford and Martial?

Let's pray one of them would be fit for this match. It's dreadful to think if we have to start Ronaldo against this lot. They'll massacre us.

 

[tenpoless]

Erling Haaland

Scott McTomminay

 

[Borys]

Absolutely hate playing Pep this one can be fun. Would take a draw obviously, especially that Martial and Rashford are out.

Think we will need one more midfielder. Sacrifice Ronaldo for Casemiro.

 

[Strelok]

Absolutely hate playing Pep this one can be fun. Would take a draw obviously, especially that Martial and Rashford are out.

Think we will need one more midfielder. Sacrifice Ronaldo for Casemiro.

Imo we should start Elanga if Rashford and Martial still injured. I know he's crap but at least the lad is fast. We'll definitely opt for a counter attack approach so a fast #9 is crucial I think.

 

[I’m loving my life]

Just don’t lose by 4/5 and roll over like last year and I’ll be happy

 

[VidaRed]

We need pace up front if we want to win which means ronaldo gets benched.

 

[Borys]

Imo we should start Elanga if Rashford and Martial still injured. I know he's crap but at least the lad is fast. We'll definitely opt for a counter attack approach so a fast #9 is crucial I think.

Yeah, that works as well. Not sure if this is a game for Anthony/Sancho.

 

[Strelok]

Yeah, that works as well. Not sure if this is a game for Anthony/Sancho.

Yeah Antony or Sancho would got eaten alive in the middle.

Unfortunately it seems Elanga is our best option there if both Rashford and Martial still injured. He had some games as a #9 in the academy I think. Plus he can and will run and press a lot. We'd absolutely need some pace and workrate against City.