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Unbeaten City welcome Manchester rivals United to the Etihad

This will be the 188th meeting between these two same city rivals, as Manchester City hope to protect their unbeaten start to the season.

The sky blues find themselves second in the league at this early stage of the season and the only team yet to be beaten in the Premier League, a win over their bitter rivals could see the sky-blue side propelled back to the top of the Premier League.

Manchester United also find themselves on a good run of form as of late since the introduction of Erik ten Hag, the red devils have turned around their fortunes after a shaky start to the season ten Haag seems to have steadied the ship, winning their last four Premier League matches.

This will be ten Hag’s first taste of a Manchester Derby since taking charge and has had some experience of a local derby, as manager of Ajax he faced bitter rivals, Feyenoord the derby known locally as De Klassieker (The Classic) in the Eredivisie and has never lost to their rivals.

Pep Guardiola certainly has reason to be wary of this rejuvenated Manchester United side, as he told the Manchester Post back in 2021 after a derby day defeat to the red devils, he was quoted in saying,

“It was a fantastic game; United make incredibly high pressing and they are so fast on the counter. Unfortunately, we couldn’t be clinical upfront.”

Manchester City have only lost once in their last five meetings between the sides, and ten Hag’s players will be determined to pull one over on their city counterparts and with regular starter John Stones suffering an injury last night with England, Guardiola will have to find a suitable replacement within his ranks.

Christiano Ronaldo will miss this game along with long term absentee Anthony Martial, giving ten Hag very little options upfront going in this fixture.   

The game kicks off at 14:00 BST, live on Sky Sports from the Etihad Stadium, Sunday the 2nd of October.        

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