Rooney is expected to start up front along with Anthony Martial against City today, with the Old Trafford hosts keen to get three points against a fellow Premier League title rival. Rooney, who turned 30 on Saturday, became England’s all-time leading goalscorer in September and after scoring in the 3-0 win over Everton last week he became the joint second highest scorer in Premier League history alongside Andy Cole.
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The emergence of Chris Smalling’s development will be of great interest to United fans, and he appeared to work well with the returning Phil Jones against the Toffees last weekend.
Rio Ferdinand has claimed French super-kid Anthony Martial is the only Manchester United player who scares the top teams, writes Steve Bates in the Sunday People.
Those defeats cast a few doubt over the club’s ability to compete without the midfield dominance displayed in previous years, although they were able to hit straight back at critics with 11 goals in two games when running riot over Newcastle United and Bournemouth. He seems likely to play up against Pablo Zabaleta, who can struggle badly against players with good acceleration, and this will be a particularly promising avenue for United if Vincent Kompany continues his usual approach against Wayne Rooney: sticking extremely tight, and sometimes getting dragged up the pitch.Merson also suggested Pellegrini will not drop his big-name players, even if they are below-par.
“They’re great players, but City can also bring great players into the squad as well”, Jones added. When we win against Manchester City, we can be first in the table but that doesn’t mean we are the champions.
City head into the clash wounded from a frustrating worldwide period which saw key players David Silva and Sergio Aguero pick up injuries, the latter being ruled out for over a month.
The 19-year-old has been an instant hit at Old Trafford since joining the club for £36 million in August, and scored the equaliser – his fifth goal in his new club colours – in Wednesday’s 1-1 draw with CSKA Moscow in the Champions League.
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“We have made a big step when you compare with previous year”, the United manager said. “You need to win these games for the fans”. “He has started his career at City really well but hopefully we can slow him down a bit on Sunday and come out on top”. “When you look at the facts they are first and we are third so they are the favourite”, the United boss said.
