Why is Man City vs Man Utd being played at an unusual time? Reason for early 3:30pm Manchester derby kick-off explained

Manchester will come to a standstill when City host United in Sunday's derby and the world will be watching too. Pep Guardiola's side have won three of the last derbies, including last year's all-Manchester FA Cup final, and will be favourites to maintain their recent dominance in the fixture as they are currently 15 points ahead of United in the table.

It is another key match in the Premier League title race for City, who are second in the table, trailing leaders Liverpool by one point and leading third-placed Arsenal by one point. And the Cityzens will be especially keen to win and stay in touch with the Merseysiders as they face them the following week at Anfield.

United's hopes of gate-crashing the top four and returning to the Champions League are fading fast after their surprise 2-1 defeat at home to Fulham and another loss at the Etihad Stadium could deal a near-fatal blow to their chances of catching Aston Villa.

However, the game will be kicking off at unusual time. GOAL explains why...