Manchester United will host the first Manchester Derby of the season on Sunday in a game of huge significance at the top of the table, but which will Louis van Gaal or Manuel Pellegrini’s men come out on top in a combined XI when considering their WhoScored ratings in the Premier League this season?
Unsurprisingly, given City’s status as the Premier League leaders going into this weekend’s action they pack the combined XI with seven players and they could have had almost had a clean sweep of players had Sergio Aguero (7.10 rating) and David Silva (8.04) not been ruled out through injury.
With Silva expected to miss the match at the weekend, Kevin de Bruyne automatically takes centre stage as the highest rated player on display having scored three goals and registered as many assists from his first five league games for City this season.
Vincent Kompany hasn’t featured for the away side since their 2-1 defeat to Juventus midway through September, but is expected to return to the starting fold here. City have kept a clean sheet in each of the five games they’ve had their captain starting at the heart of their defence, whereas they’ve failed to keep the opposition out in their last four league games that Kompany has been forced to watched from the sidelines.
Conversely, the home side can only boost David de Gea (6.97), Chris Smalling (7.40), Juan Mata (7.14) and Anthony Martial (7.77) in the line up. Van Gaal’s side can leapfrog their city rivals into first place with a win this weekend, although they have lost three of their last four league meetings with the Citizens. Although they did win this corresponding fixture 4-2 last season.
