Guessing a Pep Guardiola teamsheet for a big game, is it? Oh, good.
Manchester United are next on the agenda for defending Premier League champions Manchester City, who have not beaten their bitter rivals in the past three attempts on home soil across all competitions.
Tuesday’s 2-0 FA Cup fifth-round win at Peterborough United proved to be a reasonable workout and might have given a little more clarity to the three major areas of selection debate.
Sticking on our tin hats, City Is Ours will have a walk through each of those and pick our derby day XI for Sunday.
Centre-back pairing
Even considering his absence from City’s past two games, Kyle Walker seems sure to start given the insurance he offers against United’s threat on the counter-attack.
Ederson and Joao Cancelo’s form this season means the goalkeeper and full-backs pick themselves. Who to start at centre-back might represent the biggest dilemma of them all for Guardiola.
The Ruben Dias-John Stones partnership of last season has given way to Aymeric Laporte and Dias for the most part this time around, although City have only conceded once in the Premier League with Stones on the field.
Not long ago it would have felt unthinkable to take Dias out for a big game, but Guardiola did that against Chelsea and Laporte and Stones excelled.
The duo’s superior passing in tandem - particularly in light of the sluggish displays against Tottenham and Everton - could lift City, even before we consider the leg injury that led to Dias being substituted at half-time at Peterborough.
We just - just - lean towards Laporte and Stones, although there’s not really a bad call to make here.
Number eights
City’s midfield shape can vary depending on the opponent and game situation, but it is almost certain that two of Kevin De Bruyne, Bernardo Silva and Ilkay Gundogan will start in front of Rodri in the holding role.
Gundogan and Bernardo looked like a perfect combination earlier in the campaign but De Bruyne has shown more frequent flashes of his best since the turn of the year.
Bernardo was deployed in the front three against Spurs and Everton, with City missing his industry in midfield. That variation must be parked this weekend.
Gundogan remains a fine option but he is not at the levels of last season, when he was Guardiola’s unlikely top scorer. De Bruyne’s game-breaking capabilities and Bernardo’s all-round brilliance mean they should be the two to get the nod.
The third forward
Pep doesn’t tend to be spooked by statistical quirks, so the frankly absurd reality of Raheem Sterling failing to score in 23 career appearances against United is unlikely to come into his thinking.
It has to happen eventually, right? And the England star’s resurgent form means he and Phil Foden feel like certain picks.
That meant the front three of Gabriel Jesus, Jack Grealish and Riyad Mahrez felt like they were in a shoot-out of sorts at Peterborough.
Jesus is just back from injury and, much like Gundogan, he has slipped a little from his fine early-season form.
Grealish scored his first goal of 2022 and dazzled more as the game went on. In the Spurs and Everton games, the Blues certainly missed his ability to cherish and retain possession in the forward line.
But Mahrez’s haul of 19 goals in 32 appearances this term - already the most prolific campaign of his career - should represent an iron-clad case, as should his now unflappable skills from the penalty spot.
City Is Ours Manchester City XI for the 187th Manchester derby: Ederson; Walker, Stones, Laporte, Cancelo; Rodri, Bernardo, De Bruyne; Mahrez, Foden, Sterling.
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