City find mojo as they eye derby joy

NO prizes for guessing who has the easier run-up to the Manchester derby at Old Trafford on Saturday. For Pep Guardiola, this cakewalk against Fulham and a dead rubber at home to Marseille in the Champions League on Wednesday. For Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, a taxing comeback win at West Ham and a do-or-die group decider in Leipzig tomorrow night. The only thing not in Guardiola’s favour is that Manchester City go into the 183rd derby with 24 hours’ less recovery time, but that will matter little if he makes wholesale changes against Marseille. The Spaniard could not have wished for better preparation before taking on Solskjaer, who has won three of the past four meetings between the two. Guardiola’s 700th game as a coach was done and dusted inside 26 minutes. Kevin De Bruyne set up Raheem Sterling for the first goal, then converted a penalty after Sterling went down under Joachim Andersen’s challenge. Job done. It could easily have been a repeat of City’s 5-0 win over Burnley as they recorded back-to-back league wins for the first time this season. Guardiola’s side are coming into form after a difficult start to the season. The goals are flowing again and have stopped going in at the other end. This was City’s fourth straight clean sheet. The closest Ederson came to being beaten was a backpass by John Stones. ‘We are in a good moment,’ said Guardiola. ‘It’s important we won and that defenders didn’t make mistakes and gift goals. ‘We struggled at the beginning of the season for many reasons. Now four games, four clean sheets. It’s so important for us to maintain this solidity.’ Credit to Fulham for giving it a go in the second half. It doesn’t get any easier for Scott Parker’s side, with Liverpool next up on Sunday. ‘This is not a low for us,’ said Parker. ‘A team that lacks belief, that lacks a real assertiveness, that’s a dead team. We’ll never lack belief.’