Historic derby enters new chapter on Sunday – Manchester United vs Liverpool preview

Form goes out of the window. The clash of the titans; the two most successful clubs in English football, meet again on Sunday.

As our ‘Through the Years’ series has told us, this fixture is synonymous with tension, rivalry and ferocity.

The two sides have intermittently dominated English football since the 1950s, with breaks in between for the likes of Arsenal, Chelsea and more recently, Manchester City. But the form of the two doesn’t take away the history and the meaning of this fixture.

For Liverpool it couldn’t be going any better in the Premier League. After beating Leicester at home via a late James Milner penalty, they remain perfect and have 24 points from just eight matches. If they beat Manchester United they will draw level with City as the record holder for the most consecutive wins in Premier League history. A staggering 17.

For United it’s been quite the opposite. Bar the Chelsea match on the opening day and a scraped win over Leicester, it’s been a total disaster.

After their defeat to Newcastle they lie 14th in the Premier League, with pressure mounting on Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and many believe that the outcome of this match may have a serious impact on whether he keeps his job.

Team news

Amidst an injury crisis, United’s silver lining is the potential return of Anthony Martial who scored twice in the opening few matches of the season. They are without star men Paul Pogba and David de Gea, with Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Luke Shaw, Jesse Lingard, Timothy Fosu-Mensah, Eric Bailly and Phil Jones all expected to be on the sidelines.

Liverpool are expected to have almost a clean bill of health, with Alisson Becker and Joel Matip returning from injuries. Nathaniel Clyne remains the only player out long-term.

Solskjaer takes dig at Reds for long title wait and backs players to bounce back:

“I’m sure we will bounce back and win the league and sure it won’t be 30 years until the next Premier League that we do win,” said Solskjaer,

“For this next game, you never take a draw when you’re at Man United. I want to go out there and get three points. We need to start winning games, it doesn’t matter if you’re playing Liverpool, Manchester City or Brighton.

“A good performance and result can change the players’ and mood and perception of themselves.

“Maybe they haven’t believed they are good enough and when you lack confidence you think twice instead of acting on instinct. Because I know these players are good enough, no worries about that.”

Klopp slams ‘joke’ combined XI

“When Sky made a combined line-up of 11 Liverpool players, it’s a joke and building a banana skin,

“At the moment the world is a circus and we are in the centre. A couple of people want us to win, a couple of people want us to lose.

“We are not nervous because of the winning streak and the history we could make. We are very relaxed and very ambitious as well.”

Head-to-head

MAN UTD WINS – 88

Draws – 66

LIVERPOOL WINS – 76