5 reasons why City will prevail in the Manchester Derby

#5 City's Stable Backline

Manchester City's defence has been contributing to the attacking play too...

An analysis of the defence for both teams shows that Manchester United's defenders have returned better figures.

This can be seen in United's nine clean sheets. Also, the team has conceded only eight goals so far. On the other hand, City is a step down with only six clean sheets and have conceded ten goals in the 15 games so far.

It looks probable that both the teams will go into the Sunday fixture without at least one the primary central defenders.

While for United, both Phil Jones and Eric Bailly are injured and it is likely that both will miss the derby, City will miss John Stones who is also out due to injury.

When we look beyond the injuries we find another interesting advantage for City. While City has an experienced and stable replacement in Vincent Kompany, United lack a suitable replacement for the two.

The only options that they have are the out of sorts Marcus Rojo or the inexperienced Victor Lindelof to partner Chris Smalling.

But a deeper analysis of the two teams show why contrary to the figures, City;s defence has outperformed its United counterparts.

A quick look at the defensive statistics shows that the Manchester City defence has been better than their Manchester United counterparts in the pass completion, tackles, and interceptions stakes.

The silver lining for United's defence this season has been goalkeeper David De Gea who has made 45 saves this season, second only to Lukasz Fabianski (Swansea) who has made 51 saves.