Manchester Derby: United-City Clash Bears Hallmarks of a Classic

The sporting press is regularly accused of jumping to conclusions and making rash, hyperbolic statements—a charge which is all too often warranted.

The constant need to keep readers and viewers interested throughout an entire season forces the media to wholeheartedly declare each upcoming round of matches as bigger and more important than the last, whipping fan's expectations into such frenzy that they are almost always left unfulfilled.

It is a conspiracy in which all involved are complicit and, sooner or later, the weekly veering from hope to disappointment and back again will become too much.

But come on: this Sunday's Manchester derby is definitely going to be brilliant, isn't it?

There appears to be a perfect storm around this fixture between the Premier League's top two sides, separated by just two points in the table and only four-and-a-half miles in distance.

The conditions seem right for a thrilling Premier League classic to unfold at Old Trafford, one which will go some way to deciding the destination of this season's title.

Perhaps not since the heyday of the Arsenal-United rivalry of the last decade, has there been a fixture which has such an era-defining air about it.

Every match between United and Liverpool is big, the Red Devils clashes with Chelsea currently pit the only two clubs to have won the league in the last seven seasons and—freak scorelines notwithstanding—Alex Ferguson's team going up against Arsene Wenger's is always a big occasion.

However, City's impending incursion into the red half of town promises to be eclipse all of those fixtures as the most significant head-to-head of this season in the Premier League.

That may not exactly be a newsflash, but it is true. What is exciting about this, the 161st instalment of the Manchester derby, is that all signs seem to point to it being an exciting encounter and not a dull stalemate.

Argentina striker Sergio Aguero has taken to English football with absurd ease, having already scored eight goals and set up another two in domestic football for his new club.

Aided by the exalted likes of David Silva, Samir Nasri and Edin Dzeko, he is the most lethal forward so far this season—averaging a league goal for every 55 minutes played. United's Wayne Rooney is hot on his heels, however, scoring once every 62 minutes thus far.

In fact, eight of the 10 players with the highest minutes-to-goals ratio ply their trade for one of the two Manchester clubs.

As you would expect, given their respective scoring records, both sides can boast some other pretty impressive attacking statistics. United have scored with a higher percentage of their shots than any other side, converting 24 percent of chances.

City, however, have registered more shots on target (65) than any other side, while only Bolton have allowed more efforts headed for their own goal than United's 47. David de Gea has had more shots to save than any other keeper, blocking 18 from inside the box and the same number from outside so far.

There is also the very real prospect that neither manager will approach this game with conservative tactics.

With United playing at home, it seems unlikely that Ferguson will plump for the selections of Phil Jones and Park Ji-Sung in midfield as he did away to Liverpool last week. For the Community Shield he fielded Anderson, Michael Carrick, Nani and Ashley Young as well as two strikers in Rooney and Danny Welbeck, while Tom Cleverley was introduced at half-time at Wembley.

Last season, Mancini and his team ground their way into the top three—and subsequently an automatic place in the Champions League group stage—by setting out to nullify the top sides away from home, and often at Eastlands too. In fact, they only claimed two points from their visits to the clubs that finished in the top seven last season.

This term, however, they have been a very different proposition right from the get-go, playing with a far more fluid attacking philosophy that is reaping immediate and obvious rewards. Even when the chips were down in Tuesday's European game against Villarreal, they stuck to their game plan, did not panic and were rewarded with a late victory.

As such, Mancini should feel justified in continuing with his bold new template, rather than reverting to his previous, obdurate model.

Speaking of late winners, they are also something which have become a hallmark of this fixture in recent seasons. In the last eight Manchester derbies in all competitions, there have been five goals scored in or after the 90th minute, three of them winners for United.

So, to summarise, all signs point to a high-scoring derby match between the two sides at the top of the table, who boast between them some of the best players in the world—which is settled by a dramatic injury-time winner.

Best stick some money on a 0-0 draw, then, just in case.