Three pundits agree on Manchester United fate as brutal ‘damage-limitation’ prediction made

Pundits Paul Merson, Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher all believe Manchester City will score three goals in Sunday's derby.

Manchester United will be without several key players against City, including striker Rasmus Hojlund who picked up a muscle injury during training last week. Hojlund scored in five successive United wins before missing Saturday's 2-1 defeat at home to Fulham and Wednesday's 1-0 win over Nottingham Forest.

Erik ten Hag has been forced to play Marcus Rashford as a striker in Hojlund's absence, with Anthony Martial also injured. And United's injury struggles have left Merson in no doubt over who will come out on top at the Etihad this weekend.

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The former Arsenal star has predicted a comfortable 3-0 win for the home team and believes that Liverpool's trip to Nottingham Forest was harder to call.

"If Rasmus Hojlund was fit, I'd have given Manchester United a chance in this game as the away side would have had a lot of pace in attack with the Danish striker playing alongside Alejandro Garnacho and Marcus Rashford. Now that Hojlund is out injured, I think it would be one-way traffic in favour of the home side," Merson told Sportskeeda.

"I actually think Manchester United are going to the Etihad Stadium in damage-limitation mode - so I'm going to be kind and go for a 3-0 home win but I wouldn't be surprised if it was a lot worse.

"Erling Haaland scoring five goals away from home against a Premier League side in the FA Cup is not normal, but we tend to take him for granted. I can't put into words how extraordinary a feat