Can ‘cocky’ City beat United in the Manchester derby?

Sir Alex Ferguson has raised the stakes ahead of Sunday’s Manchester derby by branding Manchester City as “cocky” and claiming they have had a “softish start” to the season. It takes a lot to provoke the Manchester United manager into a war of words, so could it be that the he now sees his team’s close city rivals as a genuine threat in the top four?

Ferguson has confessed to being angered by the now infamous Carlos Tevez billboard advertisement that City put up in Manchester city centre, and was quick to dismiss City’s chances before the season started. He has now upped the ante by questioning whether it would be considered a failure if City, having spent £120 million, did not go on to win the league.

Publicly at least, he remains sceptical of their chances. “It’s going to be very difficult for them to win the league when you see the likes of ourselves, Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal because they’ve got to beat the four of us at some point this season to get the league”, he said in an interview with a US radio station. 

However, the fact that Ferguson is even mentioning them in the same sentence as the top four and the league title, suggests that he now increasingly sees them as a potential contenders. He, like most, will have been surprised by the manner in which they beat Arsenal last weekend, a victory which will have given Mark Hughes’s sides an added confidence ahead of their trip to Old Trafford.

The match itself is the pick of the weekend’s Premier League action and Ferguson has predicted it will be a volatile affair. Certainly all the elements are there for a classic. Both sides are in form, Carlos Tevez looks set to return from injury to make an appearance against his old side in a City shirt, Wayne Rooney will keen to prove a point following his mid-week tantrum, and United will want to show they are still the premier team in Manchester.

City should give them a good test although they will sorely miss Emmanuel Adebayor up front following his three game ban (when asked what he would do if any of his players behaved like that, Ferguson replied “I’d take them to a dark room”). They are also missing Robinho and Roque Santa Cruz through injury, so in spite of his massive outlay on strikers, Hughes has only Tevez and Craig Bellamy as realistic options up front.

United are not without their own problems,and will miss the creativity and experience on Paul Scholes following his suspension. Ferguson will also be concerned that up front, Wayne Rooney aside, his strikers have yet to fire. Dimitar Berbatov has looked the sulk he often portrayed as in the media, whilst Michael Owen has made little impact off the bench.

Taking points off two of the top four sides in a fortnight would be a massive coup for Hughes and his City side, although United will probably be considered to be favourites. Regardless of the result, Sir Alex is clearly alert to the threat City pose and has them on his radar. That in itself is a victory for the blue half of Manchester.