Roberto Mancini welcomes Sir Alex Ferguson’s table toppers to the Etihad Stadium.

Unbeaten Man City take on top of the table Man United in an eagerly awaited local derby that could well play a huge part in the Premier League title race.

Sir Alex Ferguson’s side sit three points clear of Roberto Mancini’s reigning champions and will look to come away from the trip to the Etihad Stadium with something to help keep their spot at the summit of the Premier League table.

Ferguson has had to rely heavily on his attack to bail out his hideously leaky defence on many occasions this season, most recently having to net four at Reading in order to secure what should have been a routine win at the struggling Berkshire side.

Man City have crashed out of the Champions League so are likely to be even more determined to retain their title and have developed a reputation of being hard to beat, in English top tier action at least, so this could well be a cagey affair though no doubt some blood and thunder tackling could well see this encounter bubbling up nicely.

Venue Etihad Stadium

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Last season Man City 1 Man United 0

Referee Martin Atkinson

This season’s matches 12 Y47, R1, 4.00 cards per game

Odds Man City 6-5 Man Utd 21-10 Draw 12-5

Man City

Subs from Pantilimon, Wright, Clichy, García, K Touré, Razak, Sinclair, Tchuimeni-Nimley, Dzeko, Lescott

Doubtful Clichy (ankle), Silva (hamstring) Injured Rodwell (hamstring, 15 Dec), Milner (hamstring, 15 Dec), Richards (knee, 28 Dec), Guidetti (leg, unknown), Kolarov (ankle, unknown) Suspended None

Form guide DWDWWD

Disciplinary record Y17 R1

Leading scorer Tevez 7

Man Utd

Subs from Lindegaard, Johnstone, Buttner, Powell, Macheda, Bébé, Henríquez, Cleverley Hernández, Jones, Smalling, Scholes

Doubtful Cleverley (calf) Injured Vidic (knee, 15 Dec), Valencia (hip, 22 Dec), Kagawa (knee, 15 Dec), Nani (hamstring, Jan), Anderson (hamstring, Jan)

Suspended None

Form guide WWWLWW

Disciplinary record Y23 R0

Leading scorer Van Persie 10

SOURCE: Guardian

STAT-ATTACK

Head-to-head

United have won 17 of 30 Premier League meetings between the two clubs; City have won seven.

Sir Alex Ferguson and Roberto Mancini have met 10 times as managers. Ferguson has won five to Mancini’s four.

United’s biggest win at City came in their first-ever meeting, a 5-2 win on 3 November 1894 at the Blues’ Hyde Road ground.

Manchester City are looking to win three top-flight matches in a row against United for the first time since a four-match winning streak from 1969-70.

Manchester City

City are still unbeaten in the Premier League after 15 matches of the season.

The club are unbeaten in their last 21 league matches in total. If they avoid defeat, they will equal their all-time top-flight club record 22-match streak (set from 1936 to 1937 under manager Wilf Wild).

They are the first English team not to win a single game in the Champions League group phase.

Carlos Tevez has scored 13 of 15 penalties in the Premier League.

They have never lost a Premier League game in which Tevez has scored (W31, D4).

Manchester United

United have gone 84 matches across all competitions (58 in the Premier League) without a goalless draw.

Wayne Rooney’s penalty at Reading was their 1,000th Premier League goal since the turn of the century – the first club to reach this milestone.

Rooney has scored eight goals in Manchester derby matches in all competitions. Only Sir Bobby Charlton (nine) has ever scored more for United against City. The outright most goals ever by a player in this fixture is 10, set by Franny Lee and Joe Hayes.

The Red Devils have conceded the opening goal 15 times in 23 matches this season. But they came back to win against
Reading for the seventh time in the league, a record for a Premier League season.

SOURCE: BBC Sport

Tickets still available for top football matches – Man City tickets