Simon Hopper thinks that backing a low scoring game between Burnley and Sunderland at Turf Moor should reap dividends – see the rest of his thoughts here.

Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson is unconcerned by Carlos Tevez’s possible absence ahead of the eagerly-awaited Manchester derby this weekend.

City travel to Old Trafford to take on the champions with doubts over the fitness of their former United striker Tevez, who is struggling to overcome a knee injury.

The absence of the Argentinian striker would be a major loss for City but Ferguson insists it should not concern his rivals as much as the suspension of top scorer Emmanuel Adebayor.

“It doesn’t bother me one bit – I think their best player is not playing,” Ferguson told Sky Sports News.

“Adebayor has been their star player, there is no question about that. He has scored in every game. That’s their loss really.”

The pair head into the duel both on 12 points with City taking maximum points from their four games while United have lost one of their five matches so far.

Ferguson, however, was eager to brush aside City’s title credentials and instead argued that only themselves and Chelsea already have the experience to deal with the burden of being title contenders.

“They’ve (City) had a good start, and in this league you can’t afford to lose games and we’ve lost one already to Burnley and we can’t afford defeats, that’s the nature of our league,” he said.

“If you remember going back a few years ago when Chelsea won their two titles, they got off to a fantastic start straight away and we were playing catch-up, and we had to do something about that.

“The following year we got a good start ourselves, we brought our training forward, we changed our training programmes to make sure we got a good start to the season.

“In my time this club has always programmed our training to be good in the second half, today I don’t think you get that time, you can’t afford that luxury.

“Chelsea have started the season well again – new coach, new ambitions, new expectations – and they’re top of the league and we’re playing catch-up already, three points catch-up.”

Simon Hopper thinks that backing a low scoring game between Burnley and Sunderland at Turf Moor should reap dividends – see the rest of his thoughts here.

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