Gary Neville believes Manchester United can inflict an early setback on Enzo Maresca’s reign as Manchester City manager. He predicts a 2-1 win for the Red Devils when the two sides meet at Old Trafford this weekend in the season’s first Manchester derby.
It will be a landmark occasion for both clubs. Michael Carrick, who transformed United’s fortunes as interim boss before being handed the job permanently in May, takes charge of his first derby as full-time manager.
Across the touchline, Maresca will experience the fixture for the first time as City head coach, having replaced Pep Guardiola in the summer after the Spaniard’s decade-long spell at the Etihad Stadium came to an end.
Speaking on his YouTube show The Overlap, Neville drew heavily on last season’s corresponding fixture, when Carrick’s first game in interim charge produced a memorable 2-0 win over City in front of a raucous home crowd.
The former United defender thinks that same atmosphere could prove decisive again.
Neville: ‘That five or ten minutes when the ground just eats you up’
Neville was unequivocal in his prediction, telling The Overlap: “I think United are going to win, but if you asked what the score is going to be, I would say 2-1 to United.”
He went on to explain his reasoning, pointing to the changes in City’s squad and comparing Old Trafford’s capacity to unsettle visitors to the reputation Anfield holds among opponents.
“If I look at Sunday, it’s a new City and a few of them won’t have gone there [to Old Trafford] or in this type of fixture,” he said.
“I always say when City go to Anfield, I think Liverpool will probably win, and I think United is a bit like that on Sunday.
“I think City have got a very good squad, but you’ve actually lost a lot of leadership and experience, you’ve lost a lot.
“I do think that United is that kind of ground, like Anfield, where it can just eat you up, in ten minutes, it can just eat you alive.”
Neville acknowledged that City are likely to control large spells of the game but argued that United’s home advantage could still prove the difference in a tight, fraught encounter.
“City will probably be the better team for quite a large part of the game, but I just think there’ll be that ten-minute period where it will become ferocious and it will become that quick and they’ll be like, ‘What’s going on?'” he said.
“And that is probably what we’re relying upon on Sunday: that moment, that five or ten minutes when the ground just eats you up.”
A fresh look on Sunday for an old rivalry
The prediction lands at a fascinating moment for both clubs. United go into the weekend with Carrick now settled into the job on a permanent basis. He earned the role after guiding the club from seventh to third in the Premier League and back into the Champions League.
City, by contrast, are still finding their feet under Maresca, the Italian who returns to the Etihad for a third spell at the club after previous stints in the academy and as one of Guardiola’s assistants during the 2018-19 treble-winning campaign.
Neville’s point about City having “lost a lot of leadership and experience” reflects the scale of turnover behind the scenes at the Etihad. Following Guardiola’s exit, Maresca now tasked with stamping his own identity on a squad built for a different manager’s methods.
For United, Sunday represents an opportunity to build on last season’s derby-day statement and give Carrick a first taste of the fixture as permanent boss.
Should Neville’s prediction hold true, it would mark back-to-back home wins over their rivals for the first time in several years — a result that would carry outsized significance given the changes at both clubs.
