Manchester City vs Manchester United Prediction: Goals Galore but City to win

With the first international break of the season now behind us, Premier League matters are back on the weekend agenda. An agenda that focuses on Manchester this Sunday as derby day is the talk of the town. 

Manchester's footballing institutions, be it red or blue have had indifferent starts to the campaign. City toiling to two successive league defeats at the hands of Tottenham and Brighton. United are still haunted by the ghosts of Grimsby after Carabao Cup embarrassment just over a fortnight ago.

Team News  

Both sides could be set to hand debuts to new signings between the sticks. Admittedly the arrival of Gianluigi Donnarumma is more high profile when compared to counterpart Senne Lammens but both shot stoppers will be under the spotlight should they both start for City and United as expected. 

In front of Donnarumma, City boss Pep Guardiola may look to restore the centre-back partnership of John Stones and Ruben Dias but a lot will depend on whether the England international can win his race against injury after missing out on the latest pair of encounters under Thomas Tuchel. 

Football Odds 

In front of Lammens, the biggest question mark is who will spearhead United's attack and with Matheus Cunha missing out on the recent league win over Burnley, missing out on a midweek Brazilian linkup has done little to help him when it comes to finding full fitness before Sunday. 

While the same may also be said for another of United's big money summer signings and with question marks also surrounding Benjamin Sesko's fitness, the pair of Bryan Mbuemo and Amad Diallo may find themselves having to build a supply line for Dutch forward Joshua Zirkzee instead.  

Manchester City vs Manchester United Odds

Manchester City are priced as favourites at 8/11 to win this game, with Manchester United the outsiders at 18/5. That gives the home team an implied win probability of 57.9% while a draw can be backed at 16/5. 

BTTS has been priced at 4/7 and over 2.5 goals is priced the same, while x is the favourite to score Manchester City's Erling Haaland at 3/1.  

Over 3.5 Goals @ 11/8 

Although the last edition of the Manchester derby ended in a dour draw, April's encounter at Old Trafford looks more to be the outlier than opposed to an indication of future events. The reason for such insight is because the clash of City and United is an encounter usually steeped in goals. 

Especially at the Etihad as five of the last six derbies (all competitions) in the blue half of Manchester have ended with over 2.5 goals. However, that run has also seen 3-1 and 6-3 home wins in league and cup and with both sets of attackers poised to prove a point, the value can be found in backing over 3.5 at 11/8. 

Manchester City win and BTTS @ 2/1 

It would be remiss to suggest that Manchester City are out of the Premier League title race already but a third successive defeat could start to ask serious questions of both players and Pep Guardiola. With the margins of error already being so small, there can be no errors for City on Sunday. 

That coupled with home advantage adds further credence as to why City are labelled as favourites before Sunday and with all six of the last half dozen Etihad derbies ending in both teams to score (all competitions), the hosts may have to sacrifice a clean sheet before they pick up all three points.  

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