It’s easy to feel that City’s ship can be righted with relative ease.

“Without the injuries I don’t know what situation we would be in, but I can imagine it,” Guardiola said. “I can’t prove it, but everyone thinks we’re the better team.”

The City boss also insists he has no regrets about signing a two-year extension last month after his side had just lost four games in a row.

He said: “I couldn’t sleep – even worse than now – if I thought I would leave when the club is in this situation. Impossible.”

“They could fire me, that could happen. But go now, in this position? No chance.”

“There are many things we have to do: go to market at the right moment, maybe in the winter or maybe next year, to increase the squad so that they compete with each other, to make the players better.”

“Nothing lasts forever. You have to be honest. As I keep losing and losing, I end up saying, ‘Guys, you’ve got to find someone else to fix this’.”

For United, the problems are far more complex. “We have a lot of problems,” assesses Amorim. “They (the city) are in a better place than we are.”

United have been soundly beaten in their last three visits to the Etihad Stadium and most neutrals will believe City have the extra quality.

However, the city is not without concerns. Guardiola’s long-time friend Txiki Begiristain leaves the club in the summer and is replaced by Sporting’s technical director Hugo Viana, bringing him into conflict with Amorim after years of working together.

More importantly, the end of their massive financial dispute is approaching, which has the potential to cause uncertainty in negotiations over transfer targets, even if City continue to insist they have done nothing wrong.

Should United win the derby, City would be eliminated from the top four in the short term.

Regardless of the result, United will remain in the bottom half.

In terms of the title, it is a game that has practically no relevance compared to its predecessors. But given their respective wealth, their glorious pasts and their future uncertainty, that’s what makes it so fascinating.