De Bruyne out of Manchester derby as Aguero starts City’s Double Gameweek 29 opener

The first of two fixtures for Manchester City in Double Gameweek 29 takes place this afternoon at Old Trafford.

Kevin De Bruyne (£10.7m) will not be involved in the fourth Manchester derby of the season, however, as he has failed to recover from a shoulder injury and is not even among the substitutes.

Pep Guardiola said of the Belgian ahead of kick-off:

He feels better but he doesn’t feel 100%. And we don’t take risks. We have three important games in the Premier League but of course, the position that we have, Madrid and Newcastle are the real important games for us.

Sergio Aguero (£11.9m) leads the line for City, while Raheem Sterling (£11.7m) and Phil Foden (£5.1m) are also among the starters.

Riyad Mahrez (£8.4m) has to be content with a place on the bench, as do the likes of Benjamin Mendy (£5.5m), Kyle Walker (£5.7m), David Silva (£7.3m) and Gabriel Jesus (£9.5m).

Pep Guardiola has made five alterations overall from the side that beat Leicester City in Gameweek 27, although the Citizens have contested three cup matches since then.

Mendy, Walker, the injured Aymeric Laporte (£6.3m), De Bruyne and Mahrez are the men to make way from the win at the King Power Stadium, with Joao Cancelo (£5.2m), Oleksandr Zinchenko (£5.2m), Nicolas Otamendi (£5.0m), Foden and Sterling all recalled.

Harry Maguire (£5.3m), Aaron Wan-Bissaka (£5.3m) and Daniel James (£5.8m) have all recovered from injury to start for the hosts this afternoon, meanwhile.

James and Brandon Williams (£4.1m) in for Mason Greenwood (£4.3m) and Scott McTominay (£4.9m) are the two changes that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has made from Gameweek 28.

The Red Devils look to have switched to a wing-back system, as they have done in several of the “tougher” matches this season.

The three previous meetings between these sides in 2019/20 have all been won by the away team.

Aguero, who averaged 12 points per Double Gameweek last season (City had three of them), was the second-most-popular option for the Triple Captain chip in Gameweek 29, with De Bruyne just behind him.

Manchester United XI: de Gea, Lindelöf, Maguire, Shaw, Wan-Bissaka, Matic, Fred, Williams, Fernandes, James, Martial.

Manchester City XI: Ederson, Cancelo, Otamendi, Fernandinho, Zinchenko, Rodrigo, Gundogan, Foden, Bernardo, Sterling, Aguero.