Gianluigi Donnarumma will make his Manchester City debut in today’s derby at the Etihad Stadium.
The Italian goalkeeper, who joined from Paris Saint-Germain at the end of the transfer window, is one of five changes for the game against Manchester United.
Josko Gvardiol, Nico O’Reilly, Phil Foden and Jeremy Doku all come into the side that lost at Brighton before the international break.
Youngsters Stephen Mfuni and Divine Mukasa are on the bench with seven former Academy players part of the matchday squad.
TEAMS
CITY XI: Donnarumma, Khusanov, Dias, Gvardiol, O’Reilly, Rodrigo, Bernardo (C), Reijnders, Foden, Doku, Haaland
Subs: Trafford, Ake, Nico, Savinho, Nunes, Bobb, Mukasa, Lewis, Mfuni
UNITED XI: Bayindir, Mazraoui, De Ligt, Yoro, Shaw, Dorgu, Ugarte, Fernandes, Mbeumo, Amad, Seso.
Subs: Heaton, Lammens, Fredricson, Heaven, Leon, Maguire, Casemiro, Mainoo, Zirkzee.
THE ITALIAN JOB
Gianluigi Donnarumma will become the eighth City player to make his Premier League bow in a Manchester derby and the third goalkeeper after Andreas Isaksson in 2006 and Claudio Bravo in 2016.
Five of the previous seven debutants ended up on the winning side, although it may be a big ask to become the first to score since current former striker a Georgia president Mikhail Kavelashvili in 1996!
Goalkeepers were the talking point ahead of kick-off with Senne Lammens joining United during the summer transfer window.
It could have been the first time in 18 years that two goalkeepers both made their debuts in a Premier League, excluding opening weekend games, but Lammens is on the bench for the visitors.
ERLING THE Form MAN
Neither side have been in great shape in the opening weeks of the campaign with City losing two of our first three Premier League matches for the first time since 2004/05.
It’s a while since United have gone into a derby ahead of us in the table, although they have lost two of their opening four matches, including a Carabao Cup defeat to League Two side Grimsby Town.
So it might be better to look at individuals and, of course, Erling Haaland is very rarely out of form.
The Norwegian has three in three Premier League games and during the international break he scored five in the win over Moldova, as well as claiming two assists.
With six goals in eight appearances against United, including a hat-trick, Haaland could hopefully be our talisman again.
Match stats
City have won five of our last eight Premier League matches against United, though we didn’t win last season for the first time since 2020/21.
United have inflicted a quarter of Pep Guardiola’s total home Premier League defeats as City manager, with the visitors winning four times at the Etihad against the Catalan. They are looking for consecutive wins at the Etihad for the first time since March 2021.
Since 2015/16, the home team has ended on the winning side in just six out of 20 Premier League meetings in the Manchester derby. Indeed, since then, the only Premier League fixture to see more away wins is Crystal Palace vs Liverpool.
United registered their eighth win in 30 Premier League matches under Ruben Amorim thanks to their 3-2 win over newly-promoted Burnley in their last game. Half of Amorim’s wins have been against promoted sides, with the Portuguese manager holding just a 16% win ratio against sides not promoted to the division that campaign.
Pep Guardiola has lost 49 of his 345 Premier League matches, with 22% of those coming since the start of last November. A defeat in this game would see him take the second largest number of games to lose 50, behind Sir Alex Ferguson, whose 50th defeat wasn’t until his 367th match.
United have had 58 shots in the Premier League this season, 14 more than any other side. It’s their most shots in the first three games of a season since 2017/18.
United have made the most off-ball runs in behind their opponent’s defensive line in the Premier League this season (131), with forward Bryan Mbeumo responsible for 54 of those – the most of any player. Three of the five most in-behind runs by a player in a match so far in 2025/26 have been Mbeumo, with a high of 22 against Burnley last time out.
Bruno Fernandes has created the most chances in the Premier League this season so far both overall (12) and in open play (8). Fernandes has also scored in each of United’s last three wins against City in the competition (March 2021, January 2023, December 2024).
