Manchester City v Manchester United: 5 Facts You Need to Know About the Manchester derby

The blue and red half of Manchester go head-to-head for the 179th time on Saturday when City host United in the evening kick-off.

Pep Guardiola’s champions are currently 11 points clear of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side and will be confident of extending that to 14 at the weekend.

But – as City found out at the Etihad two seasons ago when they saw United come from 2-0 down to win 3-2 – anything can happen on derby day.

Before the big match we thought we’d share five facts about the Manchester derby which you can impress your friends with…

138 years old

The first match between these two rivals took place way back in 1881 under the clubs’ previous names of St Mark’s (City) and Newton Heath (United) with the latter winning 3-0.

The first Football League meeting between the teams came in the 1894–95 season, again Newton Heath beating Manchester City 5–2.

Overall United have won 73, City 53, and the remaining 52 matches have ended in a draw.

Wayne’s Day

There’s been so many great players to grace this great match over the years but the most prolific is a recent star.

As well as being England and Manchester United’s top scorer, Wayne Rooney has also netted the most goals in the derby.

The Red Devils legend netted 11 times against the Citizens, one more than City heroes Joe Hayes and Francis Lee.

Biggest Beatings

With 178 matches having been played there one team was going to take a thrashing along the way.

The biggest wins in a Manchester derby is 6-1 and 5-0 which has happened on four occasions.

Three of those have been in the favour of City (6-1 in 1926, 5-0 in 1955, 6-1 in 2011) and one in United’s (5-0 in 1994).

The match in 2011 was the first time United had conceded six goals at Old Trafford since 1930.

Evergreen Giggsy

Wayne Rooney has scored the most goals but fellow United legend Ryan Giggs has played in the most derby matches.

Ironically a schoolboy at Man City, the Welshman played 36 matches against the club he spent two years with before moving across the city.

Next on the list are two other former United stars in Bobby Charlton (27) and Paul Scholes (26).

Bumper Crowds

Despite the match-up becoming more popular around the world since City started to challenge for major honours on a regular basis, the derby has always attracted big crowds.

In fact, in the previous 178 meetings between the two sides a combined 9,138,824 supporters have come through the gates.

It’s predicted that this weekend’s encounter could attract 1 billion tv viewers worldwide!