Man City host Man Utd, 4.30pm, Sunday, Sky Sports Premier League
Saturday 10 November 2018 18:33, UK
Manchester City take on arch-rivals Manchester United on Super Sunday, but who will be each side's key man at the Etihad Stadium? The Soccer Saturday pundits are here to make their choices.
Pep Guardiola's champions head into the first Manchester derby of the Premier League season sitting top of the table after an unbeaten start to the campaign and with a whole host of their stars having already shone.
In contrast, United are languishing down in an unfamiliar seventh place, already nine points behind their city rivals after losing three of their opening 11 league matches.
However, Jose Mourinho's team arrive at the Etihad on a four-match unbeaten run in the league, while they also managed to get one over on City the last time they clashed in the league in April, when the visitors came back from 2-0 down to win 3-2 and temporarily halt their title march.
We asked our Soccer Saturday pundits who they think will be each team's most important player on Sunday. See who they went for and then take our poll and make your own pick...
David Silva is usually the man but this time I think it's time for Raheem Sterling to step up in a huge game. If he can embrace the situation then he can have an impact on this massive game - his assists and goals are fantastic and this season he seems to have stepped yet up again and become an influential part of this team. He seems to have also assumed the responsibility with Kevin De Bruyne out of creating things and his battle with probably Ashley Young could be key.
It's not one player for United but rather one position and that's the two centre-backs - if whoever plays at centre-back play well enough they could get a result, if they play as they have been in a lot of the games they could get run ragged. There's no real partnership formed, it seems to be Chris Smalling and Victor Lindelof the most likely to play Sunday, but that's the big thing for United - whether they win or lose this game is on the centre-backs. If they play like the first half at Bournemouth it could get ugly.
Anthony Martial is the man in form for United so they will need a big performance from him. In terms of City you could pick any one of about seven but David Silva has been one of my favourite players of the Premier League era as I have previously mentioned so I always look forward to watching him play in these big games.
Raheem Sterling: I like him. He makes things happen and opens the game up for the midfielders to work their magic. That's why Pep plays him every week - he's just so willing to make runs off the ball, which makes defenders drop deeper than normal.
David de Gea: There's no way he will come off the pitch on Sunday without having to have made a few top saves. He could end up making seven or eight saves.
De Gea for Manchester United and for Man City there are so many options I could name about five or six. But in this type of games, I would go for David Silva as he and Kevin De Bruyne are the two players who can pick out that final pass to split open a defence, who are sitting back and trying to frustrate them.
