Man City Striker sent home from training following furious bust-up with Manager Pep Guardiola

The Manchester derby is a cauldron where legends are forged and egos are scorched, and this Sunday’s showdown at the Etihad Stadium feels like a powder keg ready to explode.

Manchester City, once the Premier League’s untouchable titans, are reeling in 13th place, their sheen tarnished by defeats to Tottenham and Brighton, Pep Guardiola’s ninth season now a high-wire act of reinvention.

Across the divide, Ruben Amorim’s Manchester United, scrapping in ninth, carry the swagger of their 2-1 Etihad ambush last December, one of two victories in their last three against City.

Guardiola’s summer purge—Kevin De Bruyne to Napoli, Ilkay Gundogan to Galatasaray, Kyle Walker to Burnley, Ederson to Fenerbahce—has birthed a squad of bold new faces like Gianluigi Donnarumma and Rayan Cherki, but the cracks are showing.

With up to 13 players nursing injuries, including Phil Foden and John Stones, and whispers of unrest in the camp, this derby is less a game than a crucible, and one star’s simmering discontent could set it ablaze.

Guardiola’s gamble was radical: out with the old guard, in with a cocktail of youth and audacity. Donnarumma’s towering presence in goal aims to steady a wobbly backline, while Cherki’s silk-and-steel playmaking fills the De Bruyne void.

Erling Haaland, the Viking predator, remains City’s heartbeat, his “lust for revenge” mantra a rallying cry after those losses. Yet the Etihad’s air hums with more than just derby fever. On Sky Sports, Gary Neville’s jaw dropped at Jamie Carragher’s brash 3-1 City prediction, sparking a fiery spat that’s still trending on X.

But the real heat is inside City’s dressing room, where a star’s growing frustration threatens to eclipse the rivalry’s glare and turn Sunday’s clash into a spectacle of rebellion.

Matheus Nunes, the £53 million Portuguese dynamo plucked from Wolves, was meant to be City’s midfield metronome, a Rodri heir with flair to burn.

Instead, his second season under Guardiola has been a slow-motion car crash. Benched for the Brighton debacle and barely used in the Tottenham loss, Nunes has clashed with Pep’s relentless demands for positional discipline, his freewheeling style—honed in Lisbon’s streets and Wolves’ counterattacks—chafing against City’s chessboard precision.

A leaked training clip this week, shared across fan forums, showed Nunes storming off after a sharp exchange with Guardiola, his boots kicking up turf in a rare flash of defiance. “He feels caged,” a source close to the squad told The Mirror, noting Nunes’ private gripe sessions with Portuguese teammates like Ruben Dias. His Instagram, once a gallery of grins, has gone dark, and whispers of a Mendes-brokered move to PSG swirl like wildfire.

Guardiola’s response was pure Pep—equal parts zen and steel. “Matheus has magic, but magic needs structure,” he said, sidestepping questions about Nunes’ late-night video binges of his Sporting CP highlights.

With United’s midfield, led by Bruno Fernandes’ sorcery, primed to exploit gaps, Sunday could be Nunes’ stage to silence doubters—or deepen his discontent. Haaland’s cryptic X post—“Matheus runs for us all”—hints at squad loyalty, but the Etihad’s roar waits for no one.

As Neville and Carragher trade barbs, the real drama is Nunes: a caged star who could either torch United’s hopes or ignite City’s implosion. In Manchester’s fevered heart, where blue and red collide, this derby’s script hinges on a rebel’s next move.