United and City are neck-and-neck at the top of the table after seven matches.
They are already both five points clear of nearest challengers Tottenham in third - and have a vastly superior goal difference to boot.
Pearce thinks who finishes as champions could depend on the team that suffers least with injuries.
But he’s still expecting United to do the business come May.
“As I said from the offset, it depends on injuries,” Pearce said.
“United can’t suffer injuries as well as City.
“The two question marks I have, Manchester United if they get injuries to real key players.
“I say the goalkeeper, Matic and Lukaku being the three key players.
“If they lose Lukaku, question marks. Manchester City, the big question mark is can they keep the ball out of the net?
“On Saturday it showed to me that maybe they are a vastly improving defensive outfit as well.
“So the playing fields have been evened a little bit.
“But I’ll still go with United because of Mourinho.”
