Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has again hit out at fixture schedulers after Manchester United were given less recovery time than Manchester City ahead of the derby for the third game in a row.

United face City at Old Trafford on Sunday after playing Derby in the FA Cup fifth round on Thursday night. Pep Guardiola's side played Sheffield Wednesday 24 hours earlier.

Ahead of December's derby at the Etihad Stadium, United were asked to play Tottenham a day later than City's clash with Burnley.

And before last season's April meeting at Old Trafford, City played Spurs on the Saturday while United were scheduled to face Everton on the Sunday.

It is not the first time Solskjaer has questioned the fixture list this season after United were asked to play Chelsea in the FA Cup on a Monday night -- rather than the weekend -- before facing Club Brugge in the Europa League the following Thursday.

"I cannot believe why there's a derby on Sunday and we've got to play Thursday night," Solskjaer said. "What's the point in that? That doesn't level the playing field. It was the same when we beat them last time to be fair, we played Wednesday and they played Tuesday. Those 24 hours are important so we've got to be good at recovering now.

"I've not [complained to the authorities]. I don't think we can. It's one of those where you get told when you're going to play, so we've not got any help before this one."

United have found form ahead of the derby stretching their unbeaten run to nine with a 3-0 win at Pride Park.

They have enjoyed success over City at the Etihad, winning on three of their last four visits including two victories this season.

But they haven't enjoyed a derby win at home in the Premier League since Louis van Gaal's team won 4-2 in April 2015.

"When you're at home and you have to open up against a team like Man City, they will exploit that if you're not 100%," Solskjaer added.

"Sometimes being at home with your fans, you want to show them what you can do and beat your opponent, and sometimes you open too many spaces.

"They'll feel confident. They've hit form, they're playing well. They've just been at the Bernabeu winning there, they've won the cup final so I'm sure they'll come confident. They'll play their own game, we'll play our game and hopefully it'll be a good one."

Solskjaer is sweating on the fitness of Harry Maguire, Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Daniel James after all three missed the trip to Derby.

Wan-Bissaka is struggling with a back problem while Maguire injured an ankle in training on Wednesday.

"None of them have been training yet since the last game," Solskjaer said. "We've got to look at them Saturday probably.

"[Maguire] is touch and go because he rolled his ankle and he twisted his ankle but hopefully he'll recover quickly. I hope he'll be fit."