All eyes will be on Manchester on Sunday afternoon when United host City, with both sides desperate for the points as they look to keep the pressure on league leaders Chelsea.

Louis van Gaal’s men have won their last five games to move to within eight points off the summit, and go in to the game a point and a place ahead of their neighbours.

They face Jose Mourinho’s side next weekend, so will be desperate to not be any further adrift going in to that fixture.

Robin van Persie will miss the game despite recovering from an ankle injury, so Van Gaal may opt to field the same side that beat Aston Villa last weekend.

Captain Wayne Rooney is priced at 8.0 (7/1) to get the first goal of the game with Stan James, ahead of Juan Mata widely available at 10.0 (9/1).

The home win is 2.7 (17/10) with a number of bookmakers, with the visitors as highly priced as the 2.88 (15/8) on offer from Betfred, with the draw 3.4 (12/5) with the same firm.

Manuel Pellegrini’s men have lost three of their last five league games to fall nine points behind Chelsea, with the last of those defeats coming at Crystal Palace last time out.

Another defeat here would not only all but end any hopes of retaining the title, but could also put their chances of finishing in the top four in serious jeopardy.

Captain Vincent Kompany may miss the game with a hamstring problem, while Wilfried Bony, Dedryck Boyata and Stevan Jovetic are definitely out.

Sergio Aguero is favourite to open the scoring at 6.5 (11/2) with Bet Victor, ahead of Edin Dzeko who is an 8.5 (15/2) chance with Stan James.

An Aguero strike was enough to separate the sides at the Etihad Stadium back in November – City’s fourth straight win against their fierce rivals.

Both teams have scored in six of the past nine meetings between the two, and you can back them to do so this time around at 1.66 (2/3) with Ladbrokes, while Sky Bet offer 1.83 (5/6) for there to be over 2.5 goals in the game.