Manchester United take on cross-town rivals Man City on Wednesday in the Premier League.
And before the match, the Red Devils are surely one nervous bunch.
Solskjaer’s men lost their previous encounter with Everton 4-0 and it was easily one of their worst performances this season under any manager. And now with City coming to Old Trafford, many fans are sceptical of the fact that the Red Devils could be in for a major drubbing at the hands of their arch-rivals.
Man City won their previous league game vs Spurs and with that, they moved to the top of the table. But then Liverpool beat Cardiff City 2-0 on Sunday and have leapfrogged over City.
The Citizens do have a game in hand which will be the Manchester Derby and if they fail to pick up a win then Guardiola’s men will be stuck on the second spot and the league will be Liverpool’s to lose.
Going into this high profile game, Pep Guardiola could miss two of his key players as their latest training video has come out and both Kevin De Bruyne and Benjamin Mendy were not seen in it.
De Bruyne picked up a muscle injury during Man City’s win over Spurs during the weekend following which the manager feared for the worse.
“I don’t know how big an impact but I think the next games he will be out,” Guardiola said.
“I didn’t speak to him, but he put his hands on his hamstring. Tomorrow maybe we will know.”
Benjamin Mendy has just returned from a long injury layoff and the full back too was missing from the training video.
As per MEN though, the video not featuring De Bruyne and Mendy does not simply mean that the two were out – maybe they could have joined in later.
But then the only two players missing from the video are the only who have been in serious doubt – this just cannot be a coincidence.
If Kevin De Bruyne does miss the Manchester Derby then surely it will be a huge blow for the Man City boss but to be honest, the Belgian international has not been too influential for the team this season.
So setting up a team without the attacking midfielder should not be too big a headache for Pep Guardiola on Wednesday.
