The Decade's First Manchester Derby

It’s Manchester Derby time again but with an added twist as both Manchester United and Manchester City face off in the Carabao Cup semi-finals over two legs. 

The first leg on Tuesday night will take place at Old Trafford with the second leg taking place on the 29th January at the Etihad Stadium. 

This will be the first Manchester Derby of this decade and also the first time that the two clubs have met in the cup at this stage since 2010, when Manchester United nicked the tie with a late Wayne Rooney goal after Carlos Tevez scored for City. 

Hopefully, it will be another tie for the ages filled with drama and action as two of football’s biggest rivals go head-to-head. 

Both teams have endured different seasons so far but disappointment has been a key theme so far. From United’s point of view, the club desperately wants to get back to the success that they have been accustomed to for so long during Sir Alex Ferguson’s reign. Under Ole Gunnar Solskjær the club have been involved in an inconsistent season so far with the club sitting in 5th place in the Premier League with 31 points from 21 games.  The club has faired better against the ‘big teams’ this season with wins against Tottenham, Leicester and even their rivals City respectively. 

Manchester City have enjoyed their football in recent years with the club winning the last two Premier League titles and even won every domestic trophy under Pep Guardiola last season. But this season the team have dropped more points than the previous season and find themselves 14 points behind league leaders, Liverpool. 

Coming into the game at Old Trafford, United will find confidence in the fact that they have already beaten their neighbours away from home and Manchester City’s defence is liable to their pace upfront. However, United were beaten comfortably away at Arsenal which left questions towards United’s quality and their ability to create chances without some key midfield players. 

City come into the game after an upturn in form and some generally good form. Young players like Eric Garcia and Phil Foden are starting to stake big claims for first-team involvement and they could be involved at Old Trafford. Big players like Aymeric Laporte are returning to training and may not feature in this semi-final tie but Guardiola may be seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. 

Both teams will be wanting to secure a win but who will be going to Wembley?