Striker Wayne Rooney believes Manchester City still have the players to hurt rivals United despite the absence of David Silva and Sergio Aguero.
With home advantage and a shorter injury list than their rivals, United go into the 170th Manchester derby as slight favourites.
Aguero has played a key part in City’s recent run of six wins from their last eight derbies.
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The Argentinian has scored six goals in his last five matches against Manchester United, but Wilfried Bony is expected to lead the line for the visitors because Aguero has a hamstring injury.
Bony has only scored twice this season, but in Kevin De Bruyne and Raheem Sterling, City have two deadly players who United will have to keep a close eye on, according to Rooney.
“Nowadays the top teams have such good squads that they can cope with injuries,” the striker said.
“The players they brought in cost over £100million in De Bruyne and Sterling, so they are two fantastic young players and we have to nullify their threats and take advantage of their flaws.
“Raheem is a fantastic player and a great lad as well, but he is still a young lad and still has a lot to learn. The good thing about Raheem is that he wants to learn.
“He has started his career at City really well but hopefully we can slow him down a bit on Sunday and come out on top.”
Likely Manchester United line-up
Having scored a record 11 goals in this fixture, Rooney’s performance today could be decisive too.
The United captain has been criticised for a lean return of two goals in eight league matches this season, but continues to make significant achievements in the game.
Delighted to be 2nd in all time premier league goal scoring charts. The league I grew up watching and loved
— Wayne Rooney (@WayneRooney) October 17, 2015
Rooney, who turned 30 yesterday, became England’s all-time leading goalscorer in September and after scoring in the 3-0 win over Everton last week he became the joint second highest scorer in Premier League history alongside Andy Cole.
“He was a great striker over the years for Newcastle and for United, which I think was the best time of his career,” Rooney said of Cole.
“It’s great to be alongside him. I am still quite a long way off Alan Shearer; he has 260 goals and that one may be difficult to reach.”
Likely Manchester City line-up
For City, boss Manuel Pellegrini has paved the way for captain Vincent Kompany to return.
Pellegrini has admitted his team are stronger with Kompany on the field, even though he has left the influential defender out for the last two games after returning from injury.
“He was five weeks without playing and we’ll see when he’ll return, but I always say this team is better with Vincent than without him,” the Chilean said.
That would seem the case with City keeping five straight clean sheets with Kompany in the side at the start of the season but none in the seven games since he suffered his injury.
