Man Utd v Man City - First Goalscorer Betting

The Manchester derby on Saturday pits together two men who are the runaway leading goalscorers in this season’s Premier League. In the red corner is Dimitar Berbatov with 19 league goals to his name, including four against Blackburn and three at home to Birmingham. The former Spurs favourite has finally developed that happy knack of filling his boots against the supposedly lesser opposition, particularly at Old Trafford.

In the blue corner, these days, is Carlos Tevez. He popped up with his third hat-trick in a Man City shirt only last Saturday against West Brom to reach 18 league goals for the campaign. Berbatov is a best price of 9/2 with Boylesports to score the opening derby goal. Tevez is 6/1 with SkyBet to break the deadlock on his latest return to the Theatre of Dreams.

The disparity in price can pretty much be put down to the teams they line up for. United are heavy favourites to bounce back after their humbling at Wolves last weekend. But is Berbatov really a better bet? The lion’s share of his goals this season have come against weaker sides and it remains to be seen if he really is the man for the big occasion. Tevez, on the other hand, tends to look like he can score pretty much anywhere at any time so long as he gets the service. But this is the problem for City - they have rarely threatened goals against title rivals - especially away from home.

So where else should we look in the first goalscorer market? The other obvious name to mention is Rooney who is a 5/1 shot with SkyBet. But there are increasing murmurings that his place in the side could be under threat from the impressive Hernandez who is 6/1 with Boylesports.

All things considered the value does seem to lie with Tevez at 6/1. He may only get one chance to punish Fergie again but on current form he is more than likely to snap it up.