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Men's Team

City Magazine: November issue

WHEN AND WHERE

City travel to Old Trafford this Saturday, 6 November with a kick-off of 12:30pm (GMT).

The game will be broadcast live on Sky Sports Main Event in the UK, while those living elsewhere can find out how to tune in by checking out our global TV listings at the foot of this page.

Minute-by-minute coverage is also available in our Matchday Centre on mancity.com and the official Man City app, or you can follow the key moments on Twitter: @ManCity.

Highlights from the match can also be found later in the evening, while CITY+ subscribers can also enjoy a full-match replay from midnight on Sunday.

Teams

United

XI: De Gea, Lindelof, Bailly, Maguire, Ronaldo, Greenwood, Fred, Fernandes, Shaw, Wan-Bissaka, McTominay 

Subs: Henderson, Telles, Dalot, Lingard, Matic, Van De Beek, Martial, Rashford, Sancho

City

XI: Ederson, Walker, Dias, Stones, Cancelo, Rodri, Gundogan, Bernardo, De Bruyne, Jesus, Foden

Subs: Steffen, Carson, Ake, Sterling, Grealish, Zinchenko, Fernandinho, Mahrez, Palmer

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City tactics

Pep Guardiola has opted for his preferred 4-3-3 formation for this crucial game against Manchester United.

Ederson will be protected by a back four of Kyle Walker, Ruben Dias, John Stones and Joao Cancelo.

Walker, as ever, will add width on the overlap when City are attacking, whereas Cancelo will often tuck inside and cut in onto his right foot.

Stones was excellent in midweek, with his propensity to step into midfield and start attacks providing an added dimension to our play. 

It’s perhaps the makeup City’s front six which is more difficult to predict.

Rodri’s job is to sit in front of the back four and offer an additional layer of protection.

Gundogan will sit just in front of him, providing guile and precision passing, and it’s likely Bernardo will complete the central trio.

That would leave Kevin De Bruyne as the most likely candidate to play as the False 9, with Gabriel Jesus to his right and Phil Foden on the left.

Those six are likely to be fluid, though, with Foden and Bernardo both capable of leading the line.

Indeed, it’s City’s unpredictability, with so many players able to operate in a variety of roles, that makes us so difficult to combat. 

Much of United’s recent success against City has been built on their counter-attacking game – they sit back, soak up pressure and break at speed. They have the players at their disposal to play that way and do it efficiently and ruthlessly.

But this season United’s style has altered, with a high-pressing game employed on a number of occasions.

I’ll be interesting to see which way Ole Gunnar Solksjaer goes on this occasion: stick with a method that has brought them results against us before, or continue his transition to a different approach?

		Team	P	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Form
1		Manchester City Man City	5	5	0	0	13	5	8	15
2		Arsenal Arsenal	5	4	0	1	8	4	4	12
3		Brighton and Hove Albion Brighton	5	3	1	1	16	5	11	10

MATCHDAY LIVE

Former City and England internationals David James and Joleon Lescott will be special guests for this Saturday’s edition of our live show, which gets underway at 11:30am.

The pair made a combined total of 260 appearances for the Club and will offer their thoughts ahead of kick-off plus plenty of other anecdotal memories of Manchester derbies past.

James and Lescott will reconvene for a quick half-time debrief, before returning for more in-depth analysis of all the game’s twists and turns after the final whistle.

Available on all digital platforms including our Matchday Centre, our live show is a must-watch for City supporters.

PEP GUARDIOLA PREVIEW

“What they do is quite similar week by week. Incredible physicality, lots of talent and people up front who can win the game themselves.

“They have good runners in the channels and in behind, especially Fernandes who is good with the ball.

“We did good games against them, maybe not always a good result, except one game last season which was a little bit boring.

“In general we played good games. We were ourselves when we played them. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. United for the last century have been a good team.

“We are going to prepare well this afternoon and tomorrow morning.”

Read the manager’s press conference preview, here.

LAST TIME OUT

City returned to winning ways in midweek, beating Club Brugge 4-1 in the Champions League.

Goals from Phil Foden, Riyad Mahrez, Raheem Sterling and Gabriel Jesus left the Blues needing one point from the remaining two Group A fixtures to book a place in the UCL Round of 16.

Manchester United came from behind to secure a 2-2 draw with Atalanta in their midweek Champions League clash, Cristiano Ronaldo netting twice – his second in added time.

FORM GUIDE

City’s 2-0 defeat to Crystal Palace last weekend ended a run of eight Premier League games without defeat for the champions.

The Blues are unbeaten in four league matches on the road, picking up 10 points from exceptionally tough trips to Leicester, Chelsea, Liverpool and Brighton.

Manchester United bounced back from a demoralising 5-0 home loss to Liverpool to win 3-0 at Tottenham last weekend.

The Reds sit fifth in the table, three points behind City but knowing a victory by a margin of two goals would see them leapfrog Guardiola’s men in the table.

PREVIOUS MEETING

City will hope to improve a disappointing recent record against Manchester United.

The last meeting of any sort was a 0-2 win for the Reds at the Etihad, with City conceding a first-minute penalty that Bruno Fernandes converted followed by a Luke Shaw goal on 50 minutes.

Our last trip to Old Trafford was in the Carabao Cup semi-final in January 2021, with second-half goals from John Stones and Fernandinho wrapping up a 2-0 victory – our only win against Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side in five attempts.

On a more positive note, City have lost just one of the last six trips across the city, winning four, drawing once.

We have also lost just three of our last dozen games at Old Trafford, winning seven and drawing twice.

MATCH OFFICIALS

Referee: Michael Oliver

Assistants: Stuart Burt, Simon Bennett

Fourth official: Robert Jones

VAR: Darren England

Assistant VAR: Dan Rabathan

TV LISTINGS