The Manchester derby: two horse title race already?

With this weekend's eagerly anticipated Manchester derby soon approaching it wouldn't be a wholly inaccurate statement to say that the title will be staying in Manchester this season and the only question will be whether or not it will remain in the blue side.

Manchester United and Man City have broken away from the pack with Chelsea floundering following the fiasco of Roberto di Matteo's sacking and below them are all teams in somewhat unchartered territory this far into the season (bar Spurs perhaps).

It's a shame because many of us would have liked to have seen a wide open league but Arsenal are approaching something of a crisis and other teams (Everton, West Brom) don't have the experience or the talent that City and United have to maintain a challenge on the Premier League title.

It is too early to say that whoever wins the derby on Sunday will be winning the league this year but whichever team wins will certainly take a great deal of momentum going into the second half of the season. 

United have thus far proven to be impotent at the back but extremely potent going forward. Incredibly, they have trailed in 14 games this season and managed to win 10 of those games which is a credit to Sir Alex Ferguson's management skills but also the firepower they have going forward. When your front two consists of Robin van Persie, Wayne Rooney and Javier Hernandez goals are guaranteed.

Ferguson will be troubled, however, by his teams poor showing at the back so far this season and last week's horror show against Reading prompted the manager to say he is considering throwing on a shirt and playing himself if things didn't improve against City.

We all know the talent and depth of City's squad and Mancini is a shrewd enough manager to send out the right team to beat United at the Etihad stadium on Sunday.

City have displayed some defensive problems of their own, however, and they seem unable to defend set pieces successfully. 

All this means that the Manchester derby could shape up to be a very entertaining goal fest but if I were to put money on it, I'd have to give the edge to City as they are at home and are marginally better defensively. Let's all hope for a nine goal thriller, though, with some red cards thrown in.

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