Guardiola will be watchful of penalty threat
PENALTY WATCH
TODAY will be the most important marker of City’s progress this season in defence.
Pep Guardiola has been disappointed at the way in which individual mistakes have cost his team in important games over the past year.
Ederson was caught out in the last derby, there were specific failures in the Champions League defeat to Lyon, while in this campaign his team conceded three penalties against Leicester and missed one against Liverpool as they dropped points in each.
City’s defence has been much improved since - thanks in no small part to summer signing Ruben Dias - but United have an attack that is ready to exploit any indecisiveness or rashness in the Blues backline.
Only two clubs have earned more penalties in the Premier League this season, while Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side were also awarded spotkicks in four of their six Champions League games.
With VAR providing an additional microscope for challenges in the box, City’s defence will be severely tested by United’s nippy forward-line built for the counter.
STERLING RECORD
RAHEEM Sterling has a surprisingly dreadful record against United. The City forward is yet to score against the Reds for either the Blues or Liverpool in more than 22 hours of football and has been culpable with some poor misses in recent fixtures.
Guardiola has previously praised Sterling’s ability not to let previous setbacks play on him - something exhibited last week at Fulham when he scored two minutes after spurning a similarly good chance - but the manager also needs to feel a player will be confident in front of goal and Sterling’s record could count against him.
CANCELO VS MENDY
IT is hard to match up the Angelino that tore United apart this week with the Angelino that was so ruthlessly exposed by the Reds last season at the Etihad.
If the left-back is showing what a difference a change in club can make, Guardiola is experiencing some healthy competition in that position for the first time in a long time with Benjamin Mendy and Joao Cancelo both in decent form.
Whichever is left out today can afford to feel hard done by, but such is life at a top club.
SIGNIFICANCE OF THREE POINTS
WITH the top three having lost just one game each this season and having winnable fixtures this weekend, the pressure to get closer to them in the table grows.
City and United were disadvantaged from the hangover of their European exploits last season but with the Champions League out of the way, the next target for the Blues is to manoeuvre themselves to the top of the table.
Upcoming fixtures with West Brom, Southampton, Newcastle and Everton look a promising end to 2020, yet a derby defeat will likely leave City nine points off the top even with a game in hand as well as deflating the momentum that they have built. A win will probably mean more to United, but City could do with the boost that a victory would give them.
AGUERO ON THE BENCH
SERGIO Aguero will not start, but what a useful player he is to have on his bench. He has the sort of clinical touch that has been too often absent this season from the Blues.