Overview
Man City is having a perfect start in the Premier League, but the away trip to Old Trafford will be Enzo Maresca's first big challenge.
The Citizens won all 3 opening matches of the season and just defeated Porto 2-0 in the Champions League. Meanwhile, Man United had an unstable start with 1 defeat, 1 win and 1 draw in the Premier League, but regained the feeling of victory when they defeated Sabah 4-0 in the Champions League.
The attack is the highlight of Man United. After the first 3 rounds, the "Red Devils" launched 68 shots, the most in the league, and also own 7.3 xG, which is also the highest number. They have 19 shots on target, equal to Man City. However, the defense makes Michael Carrick worried when Man United both concede 2 goals in all 3 Premier League matches.
Since Carrick returned to lead in January, Man United have won 9/10 home matches in the Premier League. They have also scored at least 2 goals in all 9 of those victories. They have won their last 3 home matches, despite conceding 2 goals each.
Erling Haaland continues to be the biggest threat to Man United. The Norwegian striker scored in the most recent Premier League match before scoring a double against Porto.
Haaland is particularly lucky with the "Red Devils" when he scored 8 goals in 7 Premier League encounters, including a hat-trick in his first encounter in 2022. Only Mohamed Salah with 13 goals and Alan Shearer with 10 goals have scored more goals than Haaland against Man United in the league.
However, only 2 of Haaland's 8 goals against Man United were scored at Old Trafford. Notably, Man City has never lost to Man United in a derby where Haaland scored.
On the other side, Man United has Marcus Rashford, who also has a good record against Man City. He scored in the last 2 encounters against this team in the Premier League, respectively for Man United in March 2024 and Aston Villa in April 2025. Those 2 goals are exactly equal to Rashford's goals in the previous 9 encounters with Man City.
Carrick is also facing the opportunity to become the third coach in Man United history to win both of the first 2 matches in the national championship against Man City.
Notably, Carrick's first match in the Premier League after returning to the Man United coaching bench was also a confrontation with Man City. At that time, goals from Bryan Mbeumo and Patrick Dorgu helped the "Red Devils" win 2-0.
Man City is currently facing the opportunity to win all 4 of the first 4 matches of a seventh Premier League season, the best record in the league's history. However, they only won the championship in 2 of the previous 6 seasons that achieved this record, in the 2011-2012 and 2023-2024 seasons.
Head-to-head record
Man United won against Man City 2-0 last season, but have never had two consecutive home wins against this opponent in the Premier League since the time of Sir Alex Ferguson. The last time they did that was a 3-match winning streak from the 2008-2009 to 2010-2011 seasons.
Meanwhile, Man City is also having difficulties in recent derbies. They have only won 1 in the last 4 encounters with Man United in the Premier League, besides 1 draw and 2 defeats.
Score prediction: Man United 1-2 Man City
The match between Man United and Man City takes place at 10:30 PM on September 13th (Vietnam time).
