Good afternoon and welcome to our live blog of the Manchester derby, contested as you might imagine by Manchester City and Manchester United. The game starts on Sunday afternoon at the slightly unusual time of 3:30pm, and we'll have all the build-up and coverage ahead of the team news around 2:30, then kick off an hour later. The bookmakers have taken United up to 9/1 in some places: how have the powerful fallen. Will City's empire last forever, or will they too fall from grace, as their rivals once did?
Erik ten Hag has to settle for injuries: Harry Maguire has been on the sidelines alongside Luke Shaw, Lisandro Martinez, Tyrell Malacia and Aaron Wan-Bissaka. He says it is “a puzzle” as to who he can use.
Ten Hag said: “We have to put the puzzle together because we are still missing full-backs. We are still missing central defenders. So we have to be creative, but I think it can be done. On Wednesday we showed that we can do it, if we have the right plan.
But more importantly, if we have that passion, and that ambition, and the desire and the determination to win the game, then we are capable of doing it.”
He talks a lot about passion and drive, says Ten Hag: are that where United's shortcomings lie? They've let in 10 in their last two visits to the Noisy Neighbors, but he's still striking a confident tone.
“From January we are in very good form and on a very good run. We have come back (to Forest) and we have to keep this process going. We're looking forward to it, great games are coming – big games and good challenges.
“So the team is very excited about that. I am really looking forward to taking part in this competition, and also in the coming competitions, but Sunday is very important.”
That's certainly the case: City are second with 59 points, four points behind Liverpool and this match represents the match at hand. Both will have played 27 by the end of tonight. United's bid for the Champions League places, as it stands, leaves them 11 points behind Villa…
United will be hoping the form book goes out the window, as the saying goes, but we'll have to see.
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