Manuel Akanji sends Manchester derby message to Man City teammates

Manuel Akanji is confident his Manchester City teammates can do the business in his absence during Sunday's Manchester derby at Old Trafford.

Akanji is suspended for the short trip south, having been sent off for during Saturday's 2-1 win over Brighton. The Swiss defender was shown a second yellow card for allegedly bringing down Seagulls winner Ansu Fati on the counter-attack.

With the ban only applying to domestic matches, he started in Wednesday's Champions League game at Young Boys, scoring the opening goal in a 3-1 win. That's now consecutive wins for Pep Guardiola's side and Akanji trusts his teammates can make it three from three this Sunday.

ALSO READ: Player ratings vs Young Boys as Lewis and Grealish good

ALSO READ: City’s Premier League fixtures for Christmas and New Year confirmed

“It is going to be a big game, it is going to be tough, but I trust in our guys,” Akanji insisted. “I think we are ready for this game and we are going to get the three points on an away game again.”

Akanji was speaking after the midweek match in Bern earlier this week on his return to his native Switzerland. The centre-back broke into senior football at FC Winterthur before joining FC Basel and then moving on to Borussia Dortmund in Germany. His return was a fruitful one, with the opening goal quickly taken after Ruben Dias hit the bar with a header.

City have now won all three group stage games so far and sit clear at the top of Group G on nine points. It's been a strong start to their first-ever title defence in the competition and victory in the reverse fixture at the Etihad will see them into the last-16.

“Yes it was special,” Akanji added of his goal. “I think we had already had a lot of chances in the first half and if