Former Manchester City midfielder Dietmar Hamann has claimed that Manchester United will have to play "a near-perfect game" in order to emerge victorious from Sunday's Manchester derby at Old Trafford.

United will enter the key match eight points behind their rivals at the top of the Premier League table.

The Red Devils will also be without star midfielder Paul Pogba, but Jose Mourinho's side have won all seven of their home Premier League matches this season - conceding just once.

Hamann, who represented City between 2006 and 2009, has also picked out Kevin De Bruyne as a serious threat to the home side this weekend.

"You have to defend well, you have to take your chances and you must not give them any easy opportunities," Hamann told Sky Sports News.

"I think you have to cut out mistakes, if one team at the moment can beat them I would be looking at Manchester United because in these big games they are usually very stubborn and very hard to break down. They got a great result at Arsenal, where they had probably been outplayed for most of the game and came away with a result.

"You can't give [Kevin] De Bruyne any space, he is the heartbeat of everything good Manchester City is doing. Obviously Pogba is a big loss, but you need to play a near-perfect game, take your chances and they have a good goalkeeper so they should be OK."

City were the last team to beat United at Old Trafford, with the Citizens winning the reverse match 2-1 last season.