Manchester City vs Manchester United: Past meetings - who has the upper hand in recent history?

The Manchester derby is almost upon us and the form book can often go out the window in this fixture, as two titans of English football battle it out.

While both, arguably, have different aspirations in the league, this game, so early on in the campaign can have massive repercussions for the season.

On form, Manchester City should have this in the bag. Manchester United have laboured to results in recent weeks, and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has found himself under intense pressure. A poor performance away in Europe, combined with the humiliating loss at Old Trafford where they were dismantled by Liverpool, form is most definitely not on their side.

That being said, neighbours City come into this after defeat against a spirited Crystal Palace side at the weekend, but bounced back with a routine win against Club Brugge in the Champions League.

With City already needing to make up ground in the title race, and United fending off other top-four suitors, who has faired better in recent meetings?

This will be former United striker Solskjaer’s ninth Manchester Derby, while it is Pep Guardiola’s 15th outing in this famous rivalry.

This will be the first Manchester Derby in front of fans since the 8 March 2020, and since then, three derbies have been played out, with a United win, City victory and one draw.

This fixture provides further intrigue after the summer transfer window, where Cristiano Ronaldo looked all set to sever ties at United and join the blue half of Manchester, before he had a dramatic change of heart and ended up rejoining United, after leaving them for Spanish giants Real Madrid 12 years ago.

Since Solskjaer took the reins at United, he has won four derbies, with Guardiola only winning three. In fact, the Norwegian is the only manager to have played Guardiola more than five times in his managerial career and won more times than he’s lost.

But, on the day, form doesn’t matter and in a game featuring some of the world’s best and most revered players, it will be a match you simply cannot miss.