Michael Carrick's Tough Test: United Aims to Avoid a 126-Year Record in the Manchester Derby Against City

MICHAEL CARRICK faces a baptism of fire as he returns to the Manchester United dugout for the derby.

The caretaker boss takes charge of a United side with a dismal recent record against their “noisy neighbours”.

United have only won one of their last six meetings with City at Old Trafford in all competitions, the exception being a 2-1 win in January 2023, when Bruno Fernandes and Marcus Rashford struck to cancel out Jack Grealish’s opener.

Since then, the Red Devils have not even scored at Old Trafford against City, losing 3-0 in October 2023 before last season’s stalemate.

If they , it will be the first time in 126 YEARS that they have gone three without a goal at home to their neighbours, since a run of four between December 1911 and September 1914.

Having lost 3-0 when the two sides clashed at the Etihad in September, also face the prospect of drawing a blank in both games against City for the first time since 1973-74, the last season in which the Red Devils were relegated.

Neither Manchester side has won a Premier League game in 2026 – and in fact both come into the derby on the back of three successive draws.

United began their run with a 1-1 draw at home to Wolves on December 30, before sharing the points at Leeds on January 4 in what proved to be Ruben Amorim’s final game in charge, with Darren Fletcher’s only Prem game at the helm also ending all square, 2-2 at Burnley.

meanwhile started the year with a goalless draw at Sunderland, before a pair of home 1-1 draws, firstly pegged back by Enzo Fernandez’s late goal for Chelsea and then held by Brighton last midweek.

This weekend’s clash will be the first time that both sides have come into a Prem game on the back of a run of three or more consecutive draws since February 2001, a game which also involved Man City, who lost 1-0 to Spurs.

Having had to wait until 2008 to win in the at Old Trafford, City have now won nine times at their city rivals in the competition – a 50 per cent win rate since that first win – the most any visiting side has won at Old Trafford.

If anything illustrates how the tide has turned in the city, it is the regularity with which City have won at Old Trafford – until that 2008 win, thanks to goals from Darius Vassell and Benjani, the Cityzens had not won there for 34 years, since that 1973-74 season.

They have now rattled in 37 goals as an away side at Old Trafford too, with only Liverpool (41) having scored more.

Only one of those 37 have been scored by , but the England man has a total of seven Prem goals against United – only against Brentford (eight) has he got more.

But if there is a crumb of comfort for United, it is their manager.

Carrick won 13 of the 24 games he played against City as a Premier League player (D3 L8) – only against Sunderland (16) did he win more matches in the competition.

Eze Chidiebere Paul

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