Manchester United vs. Manchester City, Saturday 6 November 14:30
Manchester United vs. Manchester City, Saturday 6 November 14:30

The Red Devils managed to end their four match winless run last week with a promising victory in London against Spurs. Maximum points last weekend has allowed Solskjaer’s men to creep back into the Top 5 where they sit in fifth place with 17 points. On Wednesday evening Man United had another close call in the Champions League with Cristiano Ronaldo saving the day once again with a last minute goal that allowed his side to steal a point and remain at the top of their group. They remain unbeaten in the Champions League Group Stage and hopefully their success there along with their victory in the EPL last week has signaled the end of their league slump. It doesn’t get any easier for the Red Devils this week as they take on one of the best defenses in the league in the Manchester Derby on Saturday.

It was a disappointing performance last week at the Etihad for Manchester City which saw them go down 2-0 against Crystal Palace. After conceding early on things got worse for the Sky Blues when they were reduced to ten men at the end of the first half due to a Laporte red card. With a defender sent off they were forced to reshuffle things and this inevitably had a negative impact on their attack. Pep’s men will be disappointed about giving up cheap points in their race towards the title and they now sit in third place with 20 points, five points off of league-leaders Chelsea. They have a great opportunity to bounce back against Man United this week provided they can keep their discipline and forget about their nightmare against Crystal Palace. Despite conceding two goals last week they still have the second best defense in the league, while their opponents are lagging far behind defensively.

In the last five Manchester Derbies that have taken place in the EPL Man United have won three, Man City have won one and there has been one draw. The last clash between these two sides was back in March which saw the Red Devils winning 2-0 at the Etihad, while the last match at Old Trafford ended in a goalless draw.

Prediction

Despite Man United’s win against Spurs I feel that I need to see a few more performances like last week against stronger opposition before I will be convinced that their EPL slump has ended. Their H2H record against Man City in the EPL might be good, but their record against Man City at Old Trafford tells quite a different story. With one draw and four losses in their last five clashes at Old Trafford the Red Devils will be feeling the pressure on Saturday. Furthermore, in their four matches prior to last week they only managed to score an average of one goal per match against pretty average opposition so it’s hard to see them scoring many or any goals against the tight defense of Man City. Even when they were down to 10 men last week Man City only leaked one goal which speaks volumes about the quality of their defense. I think Man United will make a good effort at holding off Man City for most of the game on Saturday, but ultimately they will end up conceding one or two goals. I am expecting the match to remain tight for most of the game and there’s a good chance that we will only see goals in the second half. I am expecting Man City to put in an extra big effort on defense this week to make up for their last match and I expect Man United to struggle to find the net.

BetOlimp Best Bets

Victory and both teams to score: no and Manchester City – 3.15
Half-time/Full-time – Draw/Manchester City – 4.71
Teams to score: Manchester United:no – 2.92

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