MANCHESTER CITY VS MANCHESTER UNITED: PREVIEW

This weekend’s biggest Premier League clash sees rivals meet for the first time this season as the Manchester derby takes place.

Manchester City host Manchester United at the Etihad Stadium with kick off scheduled for 4pm on Sunday.

The game will be shown on Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Premier League.

Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City have faced several big tests so far this season in the Premier League and have come through them reasonably unscathed.

They come into the game off of a 6-0 thrashing of Shakhtar Donetsk at the Etihad.

Their game this weekend against United will be different though, it always is when it comes down to the derby.

Pep’s side are top of the Premier League by a slim margin of two points and therefore cannot afford to drop points if they going to continue leading the league.

Manchester United however sit in seventh place, nine points behind City making this clash not as crucial as the first one was last season when both sides were still neck and neck at the top of the league.

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TEAM NEWS -

Sergio Aguero is expected to be recalled by Guardiola, with the striker an unused substitution in City's thrashing of Shakhtar on Wednesday.

Source: Sky Sports

Kevin de Bruyne, Eliaquim Mangala and Claudio Bravo are all long-term absentees for the champions.

Manchester United striker Romelu Lukaku will endure a late fitness test, who has missed United's last two games with an unspecified injury.

Paul Pogba also has a injury, albeit a minor one, and he will be assessed ahead of the trip across Manchester.

Antonio Valencia is in contention, after traveling to Italy with the United squad for the Juventus match.

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THE MANAGERS -

Manchester City boss Guardiola has acknowledged the challenge the champions could face this weekend, when United come to the Etihad.

“We have to play good," Guardiola insisted. "If we play good, we have a chance to win.

"You cannot imagine we are going to play amazingly for 90 minutes against top teams. I would like to play the same game as last season when we played top for 75 minutes but United showed us that they just need 10 or 15 minutes to create chance.

"When they have the ball, they can create something because they have incredible talent.”

United manager Jose Mourinho has insisted he does not think this fixture is "special" down to their 3-2 win at the Etihad last season.

“I don’t think is special because of what happened last season, special because is a Manchester derby and it means what it means," Mourinho said.

“We are going to try, I cannot say we are going to be successful in our motivations, in our desire, but we played two diff matches away against two very good teams Chelsea and Juventus and we managed to get good results and even if the good results were not in our pockets the performances were there, the positive attitude was there so we are going to try but you are right, Manchester City are a very powerful team.

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MATCH STATS -

- Manchester United could win back-to-back league games at the Etihad for only the second time (2008-09 and 2009-10 seasons previously).

- The visitors are unbeaten in their last three league games at the Etihad (W2, D1) - keeping two clean sheets in the process.

- Pep Guardiola has managed nine wins in 21 games against Jose Mourinho in all competitions.

- Sergio Aguero scored seven in as many games, in his first seven meetings with United, but the Argentine forward has failed to find the net in their last three meetings.

- If Juan Mata was to score, he would become the fifth Spaniard to score 50 goals in the Premier League.

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BETTING ODDS -

Manchester City - 2/5

Draw - 17/4

Manchester United - 7/1