Both sides of the Manchester divide will be hoping some derby delight can add impetus to disappointing seasons when City host United today, while Liverpool travel to Bournemouth aiming to surge further clear at the top of the Premier League.
Manchester United got a badly needed win for manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer on Wednesday, inflicting a first defeat as Tottenham manager on Jose Mourinho as the Portuguese returned to Old Trafford.
The Red Devils were again reliant on Marcus Rashford goals as the England forward struck twice to take his tally to 12 in 13 games for club and country.
There has been precious little for United fans to enjoy this season, but just a fifth Premier League victory in 15 games was enough to lift them up to sixth.
That is still 11 points adrift of third-placed City, despite their own struggles at times.
Pep Guardiola’s men looked more like their old selves in thrashing Burnley 4-1 on Tuesday with Gabriel Jesus stepping up in the absence of the injured Sergio Aguero to score twice.
City have lost just one of six league meetings with United since Guardiola took charge three years ago and cannot afford to slip up if they are to maintain any aspirations of catching Liverpool in the title race.
The English champions could kick-off at the Etihad 14 points behind the leaders, should Jurgen Klopp’s men continue their scintillating form at Bournemouth earlier at Vitality.
Strength in depth
Klopp could even afford the luxury of leaving Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah on the bench for a 5-2 thrashing of Everton in the Merseyside derby in midweek.
Both are expected to return for the visit to the south coast, but Klopp may rest some of his stars who did start against Everton ahead of a huge week for the European champions.
Liverpool travel to Salzburg in the Champions League on Tuesday needing to avoid defeat if their defence of the title is not to embarrassingly end in the group stages.
Divock Origi scored twice against Everton and Xherdan Shaqiri struck on his first start of the season to prove Klopp does have the strength in depth to successfully shuffle his pack.
Christmas No 1 spot
Jurgen Klopp says he does not care about being top at Christmas as he prepares his team for a hectic few weeks.
A win on the south coast would mean Liverpool cannot be caught before December 25.
Only three times in the past 11 years has the top-placed team at Christmas failed to go on to win the title — and on every occasion it was Liverpool, including last year.
Klopp, targeting Liverpool’s first English top-flight title for 30 years, said he was not interested in such numbers.
“There are a lot of people who celebrate already, a lot of people who worry still and a lot of people who hope that we will still fail so that’s it,” he said at his pre-match conference.
“I don’t listen to (any) of them, to be honest. So I’m completely fine. We want to try and win at Bournemouth.
“What that means for Christmas, I never thought about. So it’s not really interesting. We know that we are in a really, really difficult situation with the games coming up.