Manchester United vs Manchester City Predictions & Betting Tips, Match Previews

Jose Mourinho suffered the most humiliating return to Stamford Bridge that he could have imagined as his Manchester United side fell to a 4-0 defeat. His gameplan was thrown out of the window within 40 seconds as a defensive calamity resulted in a very early Chelsea goal, and it only got worse from there. They failed to threaten going forward at all and a host of defensive errors resulted in the rest of the Chelsea goals.

This ended a six match unbeaten streak for them in all competitions, but they haven’t shown the same sort of quality that players of their calibre should be showing for a while now. They now face the prospect of their second Manchester derby of the season, with the then in form Manchester City taking the three points at Old Trafford back in September.

Manchester City continued on their perfect start to the season for a few weeks after that win at Old Trafford, but recently things have gone downhill. They dropped Champions League points at Celtic Park at the end of September, and since then they have drawn at home to Everton and Southampton and lost away to Spurs and Barcelon,a to make it five games without a win.

The previously free scoring City have seen the goals dry up during this period, with teams seemingly figuring out how to stop Pep Guardiola’s precise but slow-paced build up play. Sergio Aguero, who has scored 11 goals this season, hasn’t found the back of the net in any of their last five matches and they have only scored two in their last four.

Manchester United’s goalscorers haven’t been in form either. Top scorer Zlatan Ibrahimovic has only added one to his tally in Manchester United’s last nine matches in all competitions, with the 35 year old currently having five goals in all competitions.

Both of these teams are likely to leave their main strikers out on Wednesday though as they think about Premier League and European commitments. Manchester United fielded Wayne Rooney as the lone striker in their League Cup win over Northampton, with other fringe players such as Memphis Depay and Morgan Schneiderlin given game time. Manchester City put Kelechi Iheanacho up front with the likes of Aleix Garcia, Fernando, and Angelino in the team as well. Iheanacho is a constant threat to the opposition and is one of the most clinical strikers around, and considering Manchester United’s defensive showing at the weekend odds of 13/8 for Iheanacho to score anytime look very good value.

The defensive side of both teams’ game just hasn’t been up to scratch recently. Manchester United have conceded in eight of their last ten outings, but have managed to find the net in seven of those outings, including one against Manchester City. The visitors have conceded in each of their last eight matches as well, but have only failed to score twice this season.

This, plus the hotly contested nature of these clashes, makes odds of 4/5 for Both Teams to Score look a good value prediction, so I’m going for that along with a 1-1 correct score prediction at 5/1.