Manchester Utd – Manchester City

The Mancunian derby will once again decide the winner: Manchester City.

The second Mancunian derby of the current season will take place in a fairly spicy period for Manchester United. At the time of preparing this material, the appointment of Michael Carrick as head coach is considered almost a done deal, and the press is weighing options for forming his staff. The 44-year-old specialist began playing for Manchester United in 2006 and spent twelve years with the Red Devils, seven of them under Sir Alex Ferguson. This time the club's leadership is choosing a member of the Mancunian family who knows Manchester United and its inner workings. At the same time, the policy of frequent changes of coaching staff has already led one of the world's most popular clubs to a deep crisis. If the next coach is given here 10-15 months to build the team, it is unlikely to seriously expect the revival of Manchester United. Josep Guardiola has been in charge of Manchester City for so long that he has literally embedded his principles and methods into its system. The crisis of late 2024 to early 2025, the Citizens overcame without a change of coach, which is now bearing fruit. Manchester City is again in contention for the Premier League title, as well as other national and European competitions. Bookmakers have marked the visitors as favorites for the upcoming match, offering odds of 1.93 on their victory. Manchester United parted ways with Ruben Amorim on January 5 of this year. In the following days, the Red Devils under Darren Fletcher dropped points in a match with the Premier League bottom side Burnley (2-2), and were also eliminated from the FA Cup after a home defeat by Brighton. Such results indicate a lack of quick solutions to improve Manchester United's play. One can believe in a magical transformation of the team in the very first match under the new coach, but right now Manchester City is a more finely tuned football machine. Moreover, the Citizens won the first derby of the current season without any problems, which took place in mid-September last year. Let's bet that the visitors will secure a repeat victory over their opponent in the league.