You Bet | You Bet: City's solid home form to prevail against United
Defending champions should bounce back at Etihad stadium in Manchester derby after two straight losses
Manchester City have had a bad week, but they remain a top team, especially at home, and they should bounce back tomorrow with a derby victory over neighbours United.
Defeats by West Ham in the Premier League and Newcastle in the League Cup have raised fresh questions about City's early season form, however, they still rank joint third on key measures such as goals scored, goals conceded and number of wins.
The argument is that the reigning champions should be first or second in those categories, but it is easy to exaggerate the scale of the problem with their latest form.
Sixteen of City's 19 home league wins under Pellegrini have been achieved by at least a two-goal margin
At this stage of the last Premier League season, City had one point fewer than they do now and were seventh in the table, six points behind the leaders.
The gap between City and the top is exactly the same now, but the difference is that last season's pacesetters were Arsenal and most people expected them to slow down, whereas there is no such belief about Chelsea this season.
City are not going badly, except that they compare unfavourably with fast-starting Chelsea.
In the Premier League, seven of City's 10 dropped points have been against teams in the top five, which leaves only the 1-0 home defeat by Stoke as an obviously bad result.