The Blues have failed to win an away encounter against United for 30 years. For Keegan’s men this venue should be re-named ‘The Theatre of Nightmares’. It seems a long time ago when Denis Law scored that back-heeled goal and helped to despatch United into the old Division Two. How sweet it was for all those Blues dancing on United’s grave - a memorable moment that will last a lifetime in the memory of every Blue, and Red, that witnessed it.
But with the 134th Manchester derby on the horizon, City have much more than statistics to worry about. Definite absentees are Ben Thatcher, Sun Jihai, Joey Barton, Claudio Reyna and Trevor Sinclair, who, it was announced on Friday, needs knee surgery that will see him join Sun on the sidelines until the end of the season.
Jon Macken could also join City's injury list and therefore make way for a string of unknowns to enter Sunday’s cauldron. They are unknowns because, of course, they are youngsters and we all know we haven’t seen too many of them at The City of Manchester Stadium.
Compared to the United squad’s average age of 24, City’s is 28, which is extremely worrying. Joey Barton and Shaun Wright-Phillips are City’s only outstanding youngsters, whereas among many, United have Ronaldo, Rooney, O’Shea, Fletcher, Smith, Miller and Kieran Richardson all under the age of 25.
This match will put City’s youngsters up against Fergie’s new brand of fledglings. The biggest worry is that the City lads will be overwhelmed by United’s firepower, they simply haven’t had the big-match experience that the United youngsters have in their armoury. They have been cast into the shadows in favour of the ailing Robbie Fowler and the disappointing Steve McManaman, and before long it could be too late for them to get a chance in the first team if Keegan continues to persist with the old school. We need to begin investing in younger players in their early 20s, and then if they don’t perform we can still sell them on unlike our 30 somethings.
United, though, are not the side they were a few years back. If a team takes the game to United then their defence will make mistakes - Yakubu’s goal for Pompey was a prime example of that. Rio Ferdinand has been caught out a few times recently: he gave away a penalty at Fratton Park and could well have been sent off for bringing Freddie Ljungberg down when he was through on goal the previous week.
We can win this one but I will stick my neck out and say that City will get punished on Sunday. Our youngsters will get stage fright and Rooney and co. will take advantage. The only positives for us are that Ruud Van Nistelrooy is still serving a suspension for his innocuous tackle on Ashley Cole and Malcom Glazer has re-ignited his interest in the 8-times Premiership champions. Let’s hope that boardroom disruption will knock United out of their stride.