The ESPN FC panel share their predictions for the first Manchester derby of the season.
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But the Portuguese was clearly irritated that Manchester City’s Argentine duo of Nicolas Otamendi and Pablo Zabaleta were flown directly back to England on a private jet, while his back-up players Sergio Romero and Marcos Rojo took an arduous route home. They have also met each other 16 times as coaches, with Guardiola winning seven games with Barcelona and Bayern Munich and Mourinho winning three games with Inter Milan and Real Madrid. Now, they’re on opposite sides of town.
“We can sense the expectation all around the city from our supporters”, says City’s German winger Leroy Sane.
It’s the ideal way to silence the critics who thought the 34-year-old would fail in England.
The Manchester clubs have spent more than £150million over the summer, so there will be plenty of big players to keep an eye on from both sides of the pitch.
Odds of 23/10 on a road win or 9/4 on a draw, therefore, can not be written off and it is notable that City are W3-D1-L1 through their last five at Old Trafford.
MINO RAIOLA, agent of Manchester United’s Zlatan Ibrahimovic, doing little to hide his feelings for Pep Guardiola, the Swede’s former coach at Barcelona.
During that break he stoked the derby fires with a tongue-in-cheek warning to Claudio Bravo, sending the new City goalkeeper some training gear saying “you’re going to need it”.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic chose the eve of the Manchester derby to give a ringing endorsement of Jose Mourinho. Before the global break, the 18-year-old forward snatched three points for United by coming off the bench to score a stoppage-time victor at Hull.
But Rashford has emerged as a legitimate challenger, having scored the victor against Hull a fortnight ago, as well as a hat-trick on his England under-21 debut. I know what he wants and what he demands. “Just like me, I don’t accept to lose”.
“Every game must be looked at as an opportunity to win three points whoever the opposition”. “The way we try to play is very positive and it’s really enjoyable for the players to play in this kind of system, where you play nice football”, he told Sky Sports News. Pogba will cover more ground, using his long, easy strides to power forward and back, while Silva’s modus operandi involves finding pockets of space and playing between the lines.
Since Pep got his first job in 2008, he has overseen wins in a whopping 78 per cent of his league matches, and has lost only 8 per cent.
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The Chilean is set to make his City debut tomorrow and the striker warned Bravo that he will face a tough test if called upon to replace Willy Caballero in goal.
