Could Sunday’s Manchester derby offer United a turning point?

David Silva has attributed Manchester City’s 6-1 victory at Old Trafford back in 2011 as the moment when the power started to shift from the Red side to the Blue side of Manchester.

Even though United did manage to reclaim the title in 2013, when the curtain came down on the Sir Alex Ferguson era, their fall from grace since then has been nothing short of alarming.

In the meantime, City have gone from strength to strength under Pep Guardiola, setting a string of Premier League records that may never be broken.

The current gulf in class between the two sides is emphasized emphatically with our GW12 goal projections showing City sporting a 1 and a half goal supremacy for Sunday’s clash at the Etihad.

Despite the absence of the brilliant Kevin de Bruyne, the Citizens have still managed to score 6 goals twice in the space of 4 days and they will surely be relishing the prospect of taking on a United side that has recorded just 1 clean sheet all season.

José Mourinho will no doubt be scratching his head trying to fathom out why this has happened, bearing in mind that United registered more shutouts (19) than any other side last season.

However, it is at the other end of the pitch that the gulf in class between the two sides really shows and United fans are likely to find this tweet that was published earlier in the week very hard to digest.

The Red Devils have at least shown a bit of fighting spirit of late, overturning deficits to claim victories over Newcastle United, Bournemouth and Juventus.

United also came from 2 goals down in the corresponding fixture last season to claim a memorable 3-2 win that meant City had to put their title celebrations on ice.

Mourinho seems to have finally run out of patience with the misfiring Romelu Lukaku, so he is likely to again rely on a dynamic front 3 of Anthony Martial, Alexis Sánchez and Jesse Lingard.

They may cause City some problems but it is at the other end of the pitch that will concern him more – United’s goals against column.

Many may argue that the shift of power in Manchester is now complete so what better time for United to rise to the occasion, to give their fans a bit of hope that it may only be temporary?

If they do we can certainly expect Mourinho to be ‘milking’ the celebrations!