Score and latest updates from the Premier League
01:56 PM
Two teams who were in good form
Before the national mourning and international break. Makes it hard to predict.
01:53 PM
But they will have to stop this guy
01:52 PM
Right then
Who do you fancy? I reckon this is a decent chance for United, City not quite as imposing through the centre as they have been.
01:41 PM
Jason Burt with the inside track from MCR
“Told that Erik tem Hag’s eyes lit up when he heard that Rodri was absent from the Manchester City team with a calf injury. The midfielder is undoubtedly a big miss for City. Ilkay Gundogan expected to play in the holding role.
01:28 PM
James Ducker at the Etihad
“No Rodri and no Ruben Dias, John Stones or Aymeric Laporte. The challenge facing Manchester United is still considerable but there’s a lot of disruption there to be spine of Manchester City’s team. Rodri has become one of the game’s outstanding pivots and his absence is a blow.
“Ilkay Gundogan has played there to good effect in the past – notably in the final months of the 18/19 winning campaign – but Erik ten Hag will be pleased to see Rodri missing.
“Similarly, Dias’ place on the bench is a surprise/blow with Stones out with a hamstring injury and Laporte, who has yet to play this season following knee surgery in the summer, only fit enough for a place on the bench.
“Akanji has started well at City and Ake has done well when called upon but City are still weakened there on paper.”
01:24 PM
ETH speaks to Sky
“We need a result, but we can bring confidence. We want to play our game, they want to dictate it. We want to take City out of their comfort zone. Rashford trained well. Not having Rodri is a huge impact on their game, they will miss him. But they have 11 really good players on the pitch.”
01:22 PM
Team sheet
01:21 PM
Foden fan
01:16 PM
Erling Haaland on watching this fixture as a kid
Erling Haaland has revealed how Manchester City’s 6-1 demolition of Manchester United has always stuck in his memory – and that he is now hoping to make his own derby moments to rival it (writes James Ducker)
City thrashed United at Old Trafford in October 2011 en route to their first league title for 44 years. Mario Balotelli, who scored twice, celebrated by revealing a T-shirt bearing the message “Why Always Me?” after the controversial Italy striker had set his house on fire after letting off fireworks the night before the game.
Haaland, who grew up as a City fan and whose father, Alfie, played for the club, was 11 at the time and the Norway striker now wants to write his own history in the fixture as he bids to add to his 14 goals in nine games following his move from Borussia Dortmund.
“I do remember Balotelli at Old Trafford with the ‘Why always me?’ celebration,” said Haaland. “I have a lot of memories. I look forward to making some new memories. “I haven’t really given it [the duels with Raphael Varane and Lisandro Martinez] much thought. I hope we can play at our best. If so, I think it is going to be a good night.”
Despite his extraordinary start at City, which has included hat-tricks against Crystal Palace and Nottingham Forest, and the avalanche of goals he has scored already in his short career, Haaland admitted he seldom watches his performances back and pays little attention to breaking records.
“I really don’t think much about records and that stuff,” Haaland told streaming channel Viaplay Football. “That is usually something that comes after I have beaten them, but it is not something that comes to mind. About analysing, I don’t watch my own games back that much. I just play them and keep going since it is so many games.
“You can’t do much with games that have already been played. Of course you can do things differently, and we are quite different. But for me, Erling Haaland, it doesn’t help to watch a game in replay and see what I could have done different. The thing for me is to attack the next game.”
Haaland’s meteoric rise has brought inevitable scrutiny. He was recently filmed walking down a street by a United fan who told him he had moved to the city’s wrong club and had a shop to Sainsburys documented by a national newspaper. Despite those intrusions he is happy out of the spotlight.
“I don’t really feel that much about it,” Haaland said. “I don’t pick up much of that. Someone sent me that video … maybe it was Kevin [De Bruyne] that sent it to me. I believe I walked 50 metres from my car to the restaurant, and then someone wanted to record me. That is just the way the world is, and there is nothing I can do about that.
“I went to a store as well, and it became a lot of fuss. That is just how it is in my world now, and I can’t complain about anything.”
A no-nonsense individual, Haaland also admitted he was intolerant of daft questions. “If you come up with an idiotic question now, I feel like you should expect an idiotic answer as well. It is as simple as that. You give and you take,” he said.
“I am from Bryne, and there it is like if someone asks ‘How are you doing?’, I answer ‘Everything’s good’ and the conversation is preferably done. That is how it works.”
01:08 PM
Pep Guardiola
joins Sky. “The players know we are playing a big game. Sorry for Gary and Roy, when they played they dominated the Premier League now.
“Rodri injured in training, a bit more than a niggle in the leg and we could not risk him.”
The sprinklers have attacked Guardiola!
01:05 PM
I’m delighted to report
that the pitch sprinklers have drenched the desk where Roy Keane, Gary Neville and Micah Richards are standing for Sky.
01:03 PM
Manchester United
Haven’t played a Premier League fixture since their splendid 3-1 win over Arsenal; they are unchanged from that.
01:03 PM
Manchester City
have won seven in a row. And they make three changes from their last match, in which they beat Wolves 3-0. Gundogan, Ake and Walker are the men who come in.
01:01 PM
The teams
Man City: Ederson, Walker, Akanji, Ake, Joao Cancelo, De Bruyne, Gundogan, Bernardo Silva, Foden, Haaland, Grealish. Subs: Dias, Laporte, Ortega, Alvarez, Gomez, Mahrez, Carson, Palmer, Lewis.
Man Utd: de Gea, Dalot, Varane, Martinez, Malacia, McTominay, Eriksen, Antony, Bruno Fernandes, Sancho, Rashford. Subs: Lindelof, Ronaldo, Martial, Fred, Casemiro, Heaton, Shaw, Pellistri, Elanga.
Referee: Michael Oliver (Northumberland)
12:59 PM
Pep sets the Manchester derby scene
Pep Guardiola says Manchester City will not crumble after he leaves, in the way Manchester United did after Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement.
The two clubs meet in the Manchester derby with the Blues in the hunt for a fifth Premier League title in six seasons under Guardiola, while the Reds have had five unsuccessful managers in the same period.
City fans are loving their period of dominance but fear the departure of Guardiola, whose current contract expires at the end of this season, will have a similar effect on their club as Sir Alex’s retirement in 2013 had on United.
Guardiola dismissed that notion, and predicted that City’s careful forward planning will ensure the Blue dynasty does not die once he goes.
“The club knows exactly what is the target and the next step,” said Guardiola. “There will be zero problems (when I leave). I am 100 percent convinced about that.
“They know the strategy. They know what they have to do right now, after the World Cup, next season and then the following seasons.”
Guardiola indirectly cut to the heart of a major reason that City have thrived since their 2008 takeover – their refusal to bow to Roberto Mancini’s demands to be given Fergie-style hegemony over all football aspects of the club.
Mancini felt that, if he was given the same degree of control as his rival at Old Trafford, he would lead the Blues to glory, but the club resisted and the resulting conflict with successive football directors Brian Marwood and Txiki Begiristain was a big factor in his sacking in 2013.
The club’s decision was vindicated when Sir Alex’s departure led to United flip-flopping from manager to manager, changing playing style and personnel on a regular basis, while City moved seamlessly, and on an upward trajectory, from Mancini, to Manuel Pellegrini and on to Guardiola.
The Reds did not act to appoint a football director until last year, when John Murtough was given the role.
Said Guardiola: “When a club depends on one person they have problems because the club is not solid. It is unstable. The foundation of the club is why the team is solid.
“If the club just depends on Pep then the club is not doing really well in this period. If the club depends just one one player – like the striker who scores the goals – then that will not be a good team.
“I never buy the players. I never sell the players. It is not my money. It is the club. Every decision we make is because we are thinking about the club.”
Guardiola implied that United’s flaws have been at the top, and not down to poor managerial appointments, saying of opposite number Erik Ten Hag: “The club must trust what he is doing and give time. Football, like many things in life, needs time to be solid.
“If you change managers and players a lot it is more difficult. Look at all the managers who have been at United, since David Moyes tried to replace Sir Alex.
“Come on, are you going to say they are not all good managers? No way.”
Guardiola will cross swords for the first time with Ten Hag, who he said might be given some breathing space by the Reds’ recent lack of success: “If United trust and let him build a team by giving him years and years, that will be welcome.
“Erik knows it – and all the managers who were there before Erik and are no longer there know it – if you cannot win with the big clubs, you don’t get time. If you don’t win then you’re in trouble.
“Imagine taking over at United after they had won three Champions Leagues in a row or three Premier Leagues. That would be tougher because, you know….
“The bridge is probably lower now because they haven’t qualified for the Champions League last season.”
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