Pep Guardiola's three-point checklist to avoid more Man City derby day woe vs Manchester United

Manchester City go into the 50th Manchester derby of the Premier League era looking to overcome a somewhat unlikely hoodoo.

Since Pep Guardiola took charge at City in the summer of 2016, the Blues have faced arch-rivals Manchester United six times at the Etihad Stadium (five in the league and once in the Carabao Cup). Of those six meetings, City have won only one and have lost the last three in a row.

It's a staggeringly bad record considering how superior City have been to United in recent seasons and the fact that Guardiola's side tend to fare pretty well when they make the trip to Old Trafford.

To avoid that embarrassing record continuing on Sunday and damaging City's title hopes, here are a few things they need to do.

Don't concede early

A theme that has developed in recent home derby defeats has been a tendency for City to concede early goals and never really recover.

The prime example of this is the 2-0 loss United inflicted in March 2021 that brought City's 21-consecutive match winning streak to an end.

That day City were almost instantly knocked off their stride when Gabriel Jesus conceded a soft penalty in the second minute, which Bruno Fernandes duly converted.

As is so often the case when City concede an early goal, their opponents sat back and protected their lead, making it very difficult for City to break them down.

When this happens City have a habit of committing more bodies forward, play riskier passes and lose their defensive composure. That is exactly what happened when Luke Shaw scored United's second just after half-time.

In United's 2-1 win at the Etihad in December 2019, two quickfire goals from Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial before half-time left City similarly shellshocked and unable to