Man City vs. Man Utd predicted line-ups: £177m worth of doubts for City with eight injured for United

Champions Manchester City take on local rivals Manchester United in the Premier League on Sunday afternoon in a hotly-anticipated derby day match – but how will the two sides line up at the Etihad?

Manchester City only have two major injury doubts ahead of the game, but United have a long list of absentees for Erik ten Hag to pick though as he looks to earn his second Manchester Derby victory at what will be the fifth attempt. Pep Guardiola has got the better of his Dutch counterpart in three of their meetings so far.

We’ve brought together all of the latest team news and injury updates ahead of the biggest fixture of the weekend below, and ventured our best guess at predicted line-ups for both teams. And if you’re looking for information ahead of the Fantasy Premier League deadline, you can also find our high-flying manager’s guide to the next gameweek by clicking here.

Manchester City team news

Guardiola’s side have a massive March ahead of them, with Premier League fixtures against title rivals Liverpool and Arsenal as well as the Manchester Derby and knock-out matches in the Champions League and FA Cup – but the good news is that his squad is close to a clean bill of health as it stands.

One of the two question marks over City's players this week has been resolved - there will be no Jack Grealish on Sunday, after the England winger picked up a groin injury in first half of the 6-2 win over Luton Town on Tuesday evening. Meanwhile, Croatian defender Joško Gvardiol has missed the past three matches with ankle ligament damage. Guardiola has been coy about Grealish’s chances of playing so far but it seems unlikely that he will start as it stands – Gvardiol, on the other hand is “good” according to his manager and “is training without much pain… he’s on the verge of coming back.”

Kevin de Bruyne is expected to start again despite missing City’s last league match as Guardiola managed his minutes following his recovery from a hamstring injury sustained on the opening day of the season. The Belgian played the full 90 minutes and assisted four of Erling Haaland’s five goals – a distinctly ominous performance from United’s point of view.

Manchester City predicted line-up

Ederson; Aké, Akanji, Stones, Walker; Rodri, Kovačić; Foden, Álvarez, Silva; Haaland.

Manchester United team news

Ten Hag has quite a number of injury problems on his plate at present, and he has said that he expects to go into Sunday’s game with the same squad as he had available for Wednesday night’s 1-0 FA Cup win over Nottingham Forest.

That means that Harry Maguire, who had been considered a doubt with an unspecified knock, is unlikely to feature this weekend having missed the game at the City Ground, but does mean that Raphaël Varane and Bruno Fernandes, both of whom had been doubts for the midweek match, have come through that fixture unscathed and should be available.

Assuming Maguire is out, he will be one of eight players missing as United make the short trip across Manchester. Luke Shaw (leg), Mason Mount (calf), Anthony Martial (groin), Lisandro Martínez and Tyrell Malacia (both knee) are all long-term absentees who are unlikely to feature this side of the March international break, while Aaron Wan-Bissaka (leg) remains sidelined and was described as being still “some weeks” away from a return at the end of February.

In-form striker Rasmus Højlund will also miss out as he continues his recovery from an unspecified muscular injury. He was initially ruled out for three weeks, which means there could be some chance that he returns for the FA Cup quarter-final game against Liverpool, but he will certainly not play at the Etihad.

Manchester United predicted line-up

Onana; Lindelöf, Varane, Evans, Dalot; Casemiro, Mainoo, Fernandes; Garnacho, Antony, Rashford.