Six months ago, United lost the Europa League final, ultimately failing last season—finishing only fifteenth in the Premier League. Things aren’t going much better now: a League Cup exit to Grimsby and dropped points against Wolves—drawing 1-1 with the league’s main outsider. So it’s no surprise that after dropping points to Leeds, patience ran out, and Ruben Amorim was finally dismissed. But without him, there was just a draw with Burnley and a cup loss to Brighton. We’ll see how the return of Carrick as interim manager until the summer helps.
The giants from the Etihad also underperformed last season: an early Champions League exit (and at the Club World Cup in the summer), a defeat in the cup final, and only third place in the EPL. Things seem to be improving now, but they’re still trailing Arsenal. There were also draws with Chelsea and Brighton. In the cup against Exeter, however, they celebrated a 10-1 win and, more importantly, beat Newcastle away 2-0 in the first League Cup semifinal.
Under Ruben Amorim, United averaged 1.71 goals scored, conceding nearly as many—1.52 per match. Their neighbors look much better: averaging 2.14 goals scored and only 0.9 conceded per game.
Manchester United have not won any of their last four matches
76% of Manchester United’s matches end with goals from both teams and an average total of 3.24 goals per game
Manchester City have won ten of their last thirteen matches
48% of Manchester City’s matches end with goals from both teams and an average total of 3.05 goals per game.
Manchester United (probable line-up): Lammens – Shaw, Martinez, Heven, Diogo Dalot – Ugarte, Casemiro, Mount, Matheus Cunha, Dorgu – Sesko
Manchester City (probable line-up): Donnarumma – O’Riley, Gvardiol, Ruben Dias, Mateus Nunes – Foden, Cherki, Reijnders, Nico Gonzalez, Bernardo Silva – Haaland.
Bruno Fernandes and company had not lost in regular time in four consecutive derbies. But in September, they were thrashed 0-3 away.
