United prediction

Earlier than the usual scheduling comes the first derby of the season and despite the early stage pits an in-form and confident City side against a United side who have stuttered a little in their opening pair of game.

Whilst the bookies make United strong favourites still, there are (shock horror) some observers out there who are tipping us to come out on top in this and we go into the game in as good a position as we have been for a derby for some time.

Personally, I think it is set up to be a very interesting encounter as (and despite United's injuries and suspensions) both sides have plenty of attacking options available to them, and I certainly don't think we will approach the game with the negativity of last seasons encounter.

However, given the early setting in terms of the season for the game I think both managers will be playing this one fairly cagily, wary of the threat of each other and perhaps over-compensating for that by adopting a more defensive approach - not wanting to give too much away and certainly (more from United's perspective) concerned that a defeat could have longer term ramifications.

I believe Eriksson will go in with a definite game plan, and has the players to execute it. It will be an intriguing game and certainly not a dull one but for me both sides would be fairly happy to come away from this with a share of the spoils and I'm going for 0-0 stalemate.