Gary Neville has revealed his prediction for the first big derby of the Premier League season as Manchester United host Manchester City at Old Trafford.
Michael Carrick’s side have had a topsy-turvy start to the season after falling to a surprise 2-0 defeat to Hull City on the opening day of the season.
The Red Devils bounced back with a comprehensive win over Ipswich Town, but were held to a draw when Ainsley Maitland-Niles’ last-minute strike secured a 2-2 draw for Everton.
A 4-0 Champions League win over Sabah saw United get back to winning ways, but they will face a trickier challenge against City who have made a superb start to life under Enzo Maresca.
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Erling Haaland’s brace against Porto in midweek secured a 2-0 win in the Champions League, while City are also top of the Premier League after three wins from their opening three games.
Last season, Carrick kickstarted his interim spell at United with an impressive 2-0 victory over City at a boisterous Old Trafford.
And Neville believes that such an atmosphere can help inspire United to a second successive home win over their arch rivals this weekend.
‘I think United are going to win, but if you asked what the score is going to be, I would say 2-1 to United,’ he said on The Overlap.
‘If I look at Sunday, it’s a new City and a few of them won’t have gone there [to Old Trafford] or in this type of fixture.
‘I always say when City go to Anfield, I think Liverpool will probably win, and I think United is a bit like that on Sunday.
‘I think City have got a very good squad, but you’ve actually lost a lot of leadership and experience, you’ve lost a lot.
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‘I do think that United is that kind of ground, like Anfield, where it can just eat you up, in ten minutes, it can just eat you alive.
‘City will probably be the better team for quite a large part of the game, but I just think there’ll be that ten-minute period where it will become ferocious and it will become that quick and they’ll be like, “What’s going on?”
‘And that is probably what we’re relying upon on Sunday: that moment, that five or ten minutes when the ground just eats you up.’
City are expected to be boosted by the return of Nico O’Reilly, who injured himself warming up prior to last weekend’s win over Coventry City.
However, the derby will come too soon for Jeremy Doku, who has been sidelined since picking up a calf issue during August’s Community Shield clash with Arsenal.
United, meanwhile, will hope to have Luke Shaw back available after he was rested in midweek against Sabah.
Asked about the left-back’s availability, Carrick said: ‘We’ll have to see.
‘We looked after him a little bit going into tonight. He wasn’t quite ready for it, 100 per cent, so we didn’t risk it. But we’ll see how he is over the next couple of days or so.’
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