The new season is only four games old, but both sides have already squandered points -- United drawing at home to Chelsea and losing at Liverpool, City drawing at Stoke City and going down at Cardiff City.
The pair already trail leaders Liverpool by three points and should Brendan Rodgers's men prevail at home to Southampton on Saturday, if either side loses the derby, they will find themselves six points off the pace.
In his last six seasons as Everton manager, the Scot led his side to victory over City in nine out of 12 games, including four consecutive successes between 2009 and 2011.
Moyes can also draw solace from the fact that the trip to the Etihad Stadium marks the end of a fiendish opening run of fixtures that he complained about at the beginning of the campaign.
Also Read
"After the City game we'll have played two or three of our biggest rivals and they'll probably have each other to play at different times."
United produced perhaps their most impressive display of Moyes's short tenure in mid-week, beating Bayer Leverkusen 4-2 at Old Trafford to take control of Champions League Group A.
Moyes has challenged Wayne Rooney to "keep getting better", after he became only the fourth player to score 200 goals for United with a brace against Leverkusen.