Louis van Gaal promises Manchester United will improve after losing the derby to Manchester City.

Pablo Zabaleta is leaving the celebrating to the fans after Manchester City beat Manchester United, as his team face a crucial Champions League clash against CSKA Moscow.

With the latest clash between the city’s two football titans taking place at the Etihad Stadium today, the global focus is certainly on this ‘football mad’ metropolis.

Come derby day and the whole city is abuzz with red and blue, with excited chatter, with bitten fingernails. It is a day when Manchester looks only to Manchester, as does the world, yet this most Mancunian of fixtures has lost quite a considerable amount of its Mancunian blood.

The 20-times league champions head into the vital match on the back of a four-match unbeaten run, while City have lost their last two.

Man City come into Sunday’s crucial game against United on the back of three straight games without a win, the latest being a lacklustre home defeat to Newcastle United in the Capital One Cup.

City have stuttered in recent weeks, first throwing away a 2-0 lead against CSKA Moscow in the Champions League before two domestic defeats on the bounce, to West Ham in the league and Newcastle in the Capital One Cup – losing their League Cup crown in the process.

Manchester United are yet to get fans purring this season and life-long fan Alwyn Payne is commemorating the team’s poor form with a series of animal-inspired images of the new boss.

Ahead of Manchester derby, MM analyse City and United players head to head

When Manchester City were bought out in 2008, Sir Alex Ferguson made a point of reasserting Manchester United’s dominance by completing the double over their local rivals.

City take on Alan Pardew’s Newcastle United in the fourth round of the Capital One Cup at The Etihad ahead of Sunday’s game against Manchester United.