Old rivals, Manchester United and Manchester City return to domestic duty on the back of Champions League triumphs, the Sky Blues sinking Porto 2-0 before the Red Devils doubled that total in a 4-0 slaying of Sabah.
Pre-season optimism has quickly become early-season pessimism for those of a Man United persuasion, who have been left underwhelmed with the Red Devils’ meagre total of four points from an opening three Premier League games, all of which were mismatches on paper.
However, Michael Carrick’s men only made their squad dominance count in their 5-2 battering of Ipswich Town, sandwiched in between a horrendous 2-0 Hull City defeat and gut-wrenching 2-2 draw to an Everton side boasting just 18 senior players.
Ainsley Maitland-Niles’s astonishing leveller for the Toffees last weekend condemned Man United to an unwanted and unfamiliar fate, as they have now conceded two goals in each of their opening three league games for just the second time in 50 years, after also doing so in the 2020-21 season.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s Red Devils ended up taking second place that year, suggesting that there is no reason for premature panic at Old Trafford.
A first clean sheet of the season and third-straight multiple goal game could not have arrived at a better time for Carrick, who has also prevailed in nine of his 10 Premier League home matches in his second spell and is aiming to become the first Man Utd manager in 113 years to win both of their opening Manchester derbies in the league.
Only AH Albut in 1895 and John Bentley in 1913 have won both of their first two Man Utd-Man City clashes as Red Devils boss, but Carrick’s opposite number Enzo Maresca is also aiming to join an elite crowd of Sky Blues bosses on Sunday.
Eight previous Man City managers have won their first league Manchester derbies – including four this century in Kevin Keegan, Sven-Goran Eriksson, Manuel Pellegrini and Pep Guardiola – and Maresca has already led the visitors to the top of the Premier League table.
Despite only putting one past Coventry City last weekend – Erling Haaland’s customary header – the Sky Blues are currently edging out holders Arsenal on goals scored, before the Gunners take on Sunderland on Saturday night.
From three straight wins to four consecutive successes, Man City’s triumphant sequence continued on Tuesday thanks to Haaland’s latest heroic act, a brace against Porto to take him up to a staggering 42 goals from 39 Champions League group stage/league phase games.
Victory for City today would also see the Sky Blues win their first four Premier League games of a season for the seventh different time – a new outright record, overtaking Chelsea’s six – but Guardiola’s final sojourn to Old Trafford last season was a miserable one, as Carrick’s Man United prevailed 2-0 in January’s derby.