The build-up to the Manchester derby this weekend is the build-up to the biggest game of the season so far.
Manchester City are the league leaders, and given their form in brushing aside most teams so far this season, they are the team to beat. And so when they travel to their near-neighbours across the city, Manchester United, who lie only two points behind, you can tell that this is a big game.
It’s too early to call this anything close to a title-decider. There are many potential slip-ups along the way, and we are going into only the tenth matchday of the season. This derby at Old Trafford comes four years and two days after City’s 2011 win at Old Trafford when they won 6-1, almost an anniversary.
In that season, even though City pulled ahead of United that day, Sir Alex Ferguson’s men should still have won the title but lost two and drew one of their last six games to lose on goal difference.
So it’s far too early to talk about it in terms of the title race, but what this game might do is define the front-runners for the title going into the Christmas period. To be five points behind City, and possibly three behind Arsenal, by the end of this weekend wouldn’t be a total disaster for Louis Van Gaal, but it would put them in a precarious position.
The Christmas period is unforgiving in English football, if you hit it in bad form it can mean a few defeats on the spin, and when you’re already five points behind you can find yourself playing some serious catch-up in the second half of the season.
But this isn’t just a big derby for United. For City, given how they’ve started the season, given that they’ve played such good football, to find that both Arsenal and United have kept the pace is bad, but to be surpassed after being beaten in the derby is even worse.
Then, the fact that Pellegrini is missing both David Silva and Sergio Aguero for the encounter makes things harder for City. Their performance against Bournemouth last weekend was sensational, with Raheem Sterling and Wilfried Bony really stepping up to the plate when needed.
Yet in midweek, Sterling was fairly quiet against Sevilla, and Wilfried Bony didn’t seem up for it before being substituted. It was, however, up to Kevin De Bruyne to score the now-obligatory last minute goal at the Etihad to send City fans into raptures.
Without Silva and Aguero, City will lack some of their creativity and their penetration from open play. Again, the responsibility for the creativity will fall to De Bruyne in the absence of Silva, but City might actually benefit from this.
With United’s game geared towards possession under Louis Van Gaal, City can play an away game against United by looking to keep Van Gaal’s men passing it around in front of two solid banks of City shirts before countering with the pace of Sterling and Navas and the precision of De Bruyne.
So although City are weakened for this game, and United are missing only Luke Shaw from their normal best XI, City’s gameplan will be unchanged. They’ll look to draw United onto them before countering with pace, and that’s when City are at their most frightening.
But given the circumstances of the game, given the nerves that will be surrounding such a big game coming into a crucial time of the season, both teams would be forgiven for taking a point if it were offered right now.
[ad_pod id=’writeforus’ align=’center’]
