On Saturday at Old Trafford, Manchester City will want to register a significant victory for Pep Guardiola by defeating Manchester United for the fourth time in a row.
In a remarkable career filled with trophies, Guardiola will manage his 500th match in the highly anticipated derby.
For the City manager, it will be more crucial that his team wins because it would reduce the gap between them and Premier League leaders Arsenal, who play in their own derby against Tottenham on Sunday, to only two points.
When the two teams played at the Etihad Stadium in October, the Red Devils were trounced 6-3 despite Guardiola’s team having defeated their arch rivals twice the season before.
Fourth-placed United are flying under Erik ten Hag, though, and a win over City – who suffered a shock EFL Cup defeat to Southampton on Wednesday – would leave them only a point behind their neighbours.
Stats Perform has used Opta data to preview a huge derby showdown.
Another huge milestone for Pep
Guardiola has long since established himself as one of the best managers in the world, achieving great success with Barcelona, Bayern Munich and City.
He took charge of 152 LaLiga games during his Barca tenure, 102 in the Bundesliga with dominant Bayern and this will be his 246th Premier League match as City boss.
Guardiola has won 379 of the 499 top-flight encounters he has overseen, suffered 52 defeats and drawn 68 games.
With a win percentage rate of 76, he has the most victories and highest win rate – for managers who have taken charge of at least 100 games – of any boss in Europe’s big-five leagues since his first top-flight season in 2008-09.
United on a roll
Ten Hag has lifted the gloom and there is more of an air of optimism at Old Trafford, with United having won eight consecutive games in all competitions.
Since and including their win over Liverpool on August 22, no team has earned more Premier League points than United’s tally of 35, winning 11 of their 15 games during that time.
The Red Devils have won all three Premier League games since the World Cup without conceding a goal and reached the EFL Cup semi-finals with a 3-0 win over Charlton Athletic on Tuesday.
City to add insult to injury by breaking scoring record?
Erling Haaland and Phil Foden scored hat-tricks as City put United to the sword just over three months ago.
Guardiola’s men could break their record for the number of goals scored against United in a season, which stands at eight established by 5-0 and 3-2 victories way back in the 1954-55 campaign.
The most goals the Red Devils have conceded against an opponent in a Premier League season is nine against Liverpool in 2021-22.
Rashford can do no wrong
Marcus Rashford can do no wrong at the minute, scoring in every game since the World Cup.
He came off the bench to help himself to a late double in the win over Charlton, making it seven goals in six matches since returning from England duty in Qatar.
Rashford, who found the back of the net twice for the Three Lions in the World Cup, has scored 15 times this season for United – who are certainly not missing Cristiano Ronaldo.