Patrice Evra has made his predictions ahead of a mouth-watering weekend of derbies in the Premier League, backing ex-club Manchester United and old rivals Arsenal to come out on top.
The Manchester Derby and North London Derby matches take place this weekend at Old Trafford and Tottenham Hotspur Stadium respectively. The Mancunian clash is up first as Saturday's early kick-off and Evra sees his former club coming out on top with what would be an impressive 2-1 victory, but perhaps not a surprise given the two teams' contrasting form in recent weeks.
"It's a tough one to predict," the Frenchman admitted, per Metro, having watched the Red Devils humiliatingly lose 6-3 away to Pep Guardiola and Co. in the reverse fixture just over three months ago. " [Riyad] Mahrez is on fire for City at the moment. It's a derby, so I'm not expecting a big score. I can see it being 2-1 to United, but equally it wouldn't be surprising to see City win; it could go either way. It can't be like the last match, [United] have to learn from that."
Down in London on Sunday afternoon, Arsenal travel to Tottenham looking to extend their lead at the top of the table. If City were to lose as Evra predicts, then Mikel Arteta's men would have the chance to boast a huge eight-point cushion with a win.
Evra certainly expects the Gunners to repeat their October triumph and once again best Antonio Conte's Spurs, who'd be five points adrift of United if they were to collect all three points the day before. "[Arsenal] should beat Tottenham, I don't see why they can't win," Evra continued. "It's a derby, anything can happen, the wrong decision and injustice, but I just don't see why they can't win.
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"They have to be careful of Tottenham because Conte and the players are really hurt. It's going to be a big game but when you look at what's going on with both sides at the moment you have to give credit to Arsenal. They have to win every game if they want to win the title, and they can."
The managers of both teams' whom Evra is backing are relishing the task of laying down a marker to their rivals, with United boss Erik ten Hag challenging his players to take advantage of City's shaky form. "Of course, we notice that they had a setback. Of course I [have] seen many games of them," Ten Hag said of City, speaking on Friday.
"We have to look at ourselves and we have to play our best game. The opponent always plays an important role in football, but we have to play our best game on the pitch together. With togetherness and full belief, no naivety and come onto the pitch and act as a winner.''
Meanwhile, title-chasing Arteta said in his pre-match press conference: "At Arsenal, you don't expect anything that is not winning football matches every three days. That's the demand we have as a club and everybody individually and every member of staff knows that. The challenge is weekly or daily to be better and to win the game. It doesn't matter who you play against."
