Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has admitted that victory against Manchester City this weekend will be particularly "special", with both sides battling it out at the top of the Premier League.

The Red Devils head into Sunday afternoon's match at Old Trafford sitting eight points behind their neighbours, who have dropped points in just one of their opening 15 matches.

Mourinho acknowledges just why the derby means so much to both sets of supporters, but is hopeful that the game - billed as make-or-break for his side's title hopes - will pass by with little incident away from the field.

"To me, it means one more big match against one of the best teams in the country, the first against the second. Big match," he told reporters. "I live a little bit isolated from society, I don't feel it so much. It's about training ground and the hotel. My day off after CSKA Moscow, I went home so I really don't have that communication.

"But I don't need that to know a derby is something special for the people. For us, it's three points but for the people born in the city and feeling the colours in that good, positive rivalry it's a special match. These are the beautiful things that football can do. We could feel in that period that the clubs were ready to work together for the city, that's no doubt.

"It would be really sad if that was not the case. Now this is a football match, an important football match where I wish everything goes well in relation to the fans. If taken in the right way, the derby is a beautiful thing; same city, different colours, friends support different colours, even under the same roof some families disagree on the passion of the colours.

"If taken in the right thing is a beautiful thing. I hope before the game you have a city full of colour, red and blue, and after the game, the same."

Mourinho will be without centre-back Eric Bailly for the battle between first and second, but Phil Jones is back and Zlatan Ibrahimovic has also been passed fit.