On Saturday in-form United face City in the Manchester Derby as Premier League leaders Arsenal face Tottenham on Sunday. The title race could just be decided this weekend.
Ahead of the much-anticipated Manchester Derby, United Manager Erik Ten Haag has laughed off Pep Guardiola’s ‘ridiculous’ mind games. Ten Haag said, “I don’t care about that, about what he’s thinking…But he did it more often and we’re prepared for that, if he does different things. We have our principles, our rules for football.”
Other than the battle of the managers, the most in-form strikers at the moment in the Premier League face each other. Rashford has scored 15 goals for United this year, while Haaland has scored 27. Ten Haag is sure that his defenders can slow City’s prolific scorer, “It’s clear he’s a really good player, but we also have good players. I’m convinced our players are good enough to compete with all of the players from City.”
The Citizens humiliated the Red Devils 6-3 at the Etihad Stadium in October 2022, and they will be out for vengeance. Since that defeat, United have been on a good run of form, losing just one of the 18 competitive fixtures- a 3-1 loss to Aston Villa in November. The most recent victory for United was in the EFL Cup, where they defeated Charlton Athletic 3-0 at home on Tuesday night to advance to the semifinals. Summer addition Antony and in-form attacker Marcus Rashford(2) both scored.
According to Sportsmole, Ten Haag has won 20 of his first 27 fixtures as United manager, the fewest games to reach this landmark in United’s history.
Many would have assumed that Man City would easily defeat Southampton in the EFL Cup quarterfinals on Wednesday night after cruising to a 4-0 victory over Chelsea in the FA Cup third round last weekend but the Saints won 2-0 in convincing fashion.
Predicted Lineups
Manchester United: De Gea; Wan-Bissaka, Varane, Martinez, Shaw; Casemiro, Eriksen; Antony, Fernandes, Rashford; Martial
Manchester City: Ederson; Walker, Akanji, Laporte, Ake; De Bruyne, Rodri, Bernardo; Mahrez, Haaland, Grealish
Predicted Score at Full-time
Manchester United(2)-(1)Manchester City
Catch all our latest shows on our YouTube channel at Switch media.
North-London Derby on Sunday
Gabriel Jesus (knee) and Reiss Nelson (hamstring) are the only players not available for Arsenal’s trip to Tottenham on Sunday in the Premier League. The Gunners beat Spurs 3-1 at Emirates Stadium in October 2022, and they currently lead Manchester City by five points at the top of the standings.
A couple of months ago, Spurs beat Crystal Palace 4-0- the only convincing performance in a while. The team has lost three of its last four home Premier League games in which they have allowed at least two goals per game.
Tottenham host Arsenal, unbeaten in their previous 11 Premier League games. They have also won five of their last six away games in the top division, including each of their last three, and their six away goals surrendered rank third best in the league behind Newcastle and Man City.
Predicted Lineups
Tottenham Hotspur: Lloris; Romero, Dier, Lenglet; Doherty, Bissouma, Hojbjerg, Perisic; Kulusevski, Kane, Son
Arsenal: Ramsdale; White, Saliba, Gabriel, Zinchenko; Xhaka, Partey; Saka, Odegaard, Martinelli; Nketiah
Predicted Full-time score
Tottenham (2)-(2) Arsenal
Read Also: Barcelona Win on Penalties to Set Up Supercopa de Espana Final Clash with Real Madrid
