The time has come. The city of Manchester is in need of a new coat of paint. Will it be red or blue? Manchester United host their noisy neighbours Manchester City this weekend, in what it is without doubt the most important derby of recent times.
With Manchester United building a strong foundation with a promising run of games, they would be looking to boost their top four hopes and a possible title run with a win over City. United will also be looking for revenge after their woeful defeats to City in their recent match-ups. With Manchester City struggling sinking down the rungs of the ladder, they are in dire need of a world-class performance at Old Trafford in order to bring their title hopes afloat.
Despite both teams coming into this fixture with contrasting form, it undoubtedly has the potential to be a tight match. Both squads are jam packed with quality and ability that is near impossible to pick a winner or rule anyone out. However, Manchester United have a slight advantage, their increasingly positive momentum. It could well be the difference in such a tight fixture.
As Phil Jones stated earlier this week, “We’ve seen in the last few weeks and all season really, what sort of team we can be when we turn up and play our football. Hopefully, we can do that on Sunday as well.”
Despite the momentum Manchester United bring into this game, it doesn’t seem to affect Manchester City, with Vincent Kompany adding after the loss to Crystal Palace: “I guess the momentum is a little bit with our neighbours at the moment, but it’s the perfect place for us to go and try to rectify what we’ve had.” Could the momentum be counteractive?
This will also be a fierce battle for the men on the bench. A great test for Louis Van Gaal as he comes up against the manager of the current champions at the business end of the season where Manuel Pellegrini has had his fair share of experience with in the Premier League.
Manchester United, you would imagine, won’t be making too many changes to the squad that lines up, with Angel Di Maria and Radamel Falcao being the only players who might squeeze into the starting line-up. However with such a disappointing end to Manchester City’s Easter weekend, Pellegrini may need to make some tweaks to his side.
Either way we are all looking forward to this fixture as it has the potential to be one of the greatest in recent history. But I must say I have my buckets of red paint handy!
