Manchester United host Manchester City at Old Trafford on Sunday at 16:30 BST, the first derby for both managers in their current jobs. Michael Carrick has faced City once as United's manager and won 2-0, in his first match in January. Enzo Maresca has played three Premier League games since replacing Pep Guardiola and won all three.
Arsenal's 2-0 win at Sunderland on Saturday put the champions on 12 points from four games. City, on nine from three, go level with a win and back on top if they win by two or more. United have four points from three, and a City win would leave them eight adrift before the season is a month old.
Two starts that read differently
United lost 2-0 at Hull on the opening day, beat Ipswich 5-2 and drew 2-2 at Everton, where they led twice before a stoppage-time equaliser. They have conceded two in every league game. The 4-0 win over Sabah on Thursday was a cleaner night, and Old Trafford has been the constant: United have won ten of Carrick's eleven home games in all competitions.
City's nine points have not all come easily. They needed two goals from the 84th minute to beat Bournemouth 2-1, then won 4-1 at Crystal Palace and 1-0 against Coventry. Erling Haaland has five goals in all competitions after two more at Porto on Tuesday, a game that gave City two extra days to recover. Maresca was not interested in that. "Sometimes it happens in football," he said. "I don't have any doubt that Man United are going to be ready."
The line that will be replayed
Elliot Anderson, signed from Nottingham Forest for £116m after turning down a move to United, said on arrival that City had been "the kings of Manchester" for as long as he had known the city. Carrick was asked about it on Friday. "I'm definitely not using that phrase at all, no," he said. "We're humble enough and realistic enough to know where we've come from in recent history, and we need to and want to be better, and we want to be challenging more."
Maresca defended his midfielder. "Probably the reason why Elliot said that is because he grew up in the last 15 years," he said. "If you go back it's a different picture."
Team news
Luke Shaw faces a late test after cramp at Everton kept him out of the Sabah squad. "We'll have to see," Carrick said. Carlos Baleba, Amad, Matthijs de Ligt and Manuel Ugarte remain out. Diogo Dalot, Harry Maguire and Marcus Rashford are expected to return, and the choice between Matheus Cunha and Benjamin Šeško at centre-forward is the one Carrick has left open.
City have Nico O'Reilly back from a back injury and Jérémy Doku is their only absentee. Anderson is expected to start alongside Enzo Fernández in midfield, with Haaland, Antoine Semenyo and Rayan Cherki ahead of them.
Maresca's instruction to his players was to change nothing. "It is a special game and the most important thing we can do is to try to be ourselves, in the way we have been until today." Carrick's assessment of the opposition was plainer. "They're a very good team with good results. We know we have to put in a really good performance to get the result we want."
