Manchester City 3-1 Manchester United: City Dominated the Derby and Complete the Double over the Red Devils

United’s deep block was unfortunately too feeble to keep City out for 90 minutes on Sunday as they left the Etihad with zero points, losing to their crosstown rivals for the second time this season. Meanwhile, City once again, come away from the derby the happier side of Manchester, this being City’s sixth win in seven derbies. 

The game went as anyone would’ve imagined it would, City dominated the ball in United’s final third, passing and moving, while looking for the final pass to unlock the deep sitting banks that the opponents had planted in front of goal, while United waited for possession to fall their way so they could hit and hurt City on the counterattack; an avenue that more than a few teams have used to take points from the reigning champions this season.

And for the first half, the game plan that ten Hag’s men went out with worked rather well; after eight minutes, goalkeeper André Onana launched a goal kick deep into City’s half that was retrieved and held up by Bruno Fernandes, who laid the ball off to an arriving Marcus Rashford before he thumped the ball in the goal off the crossbar from about 25 yards, leaving the City faithful silent. A thunderous goal off the back of Rashford’s recent statements addressing United’s fans highlight and to highlight his current form. One nil to the visitors.

After the stunning blow, City continued business as usual, but with an added injection of intensity. United responded, holding their block well, forcing City’s passes out wide where they could isolated and double up on their wingers. Jeremy Doku, who had a tough game, saw a lot of the ball on the left flank and was followed well by Diogo Dalot; Casemiro and Raphaël Varane often came over and helped to cover the goal side of him as well. Throughout the half, City would find decent to good looks at goal after United lapses in concentration and possession, but Onana, who was a wall in goal on the day, was the winner of each of these occasions, making three good saves in the first half alone. But as the half grew older, the hosts began to find their rhythm on the ball, one move saw the ball worked well down the left channel when Rodri floated a lovely ball to the back post, with Phil Foden on the other end of it. Foden cleverly nodded the ball across goal to the ever present Haaland, and with a virtually open goal at his mercy, he uncharacteristically missed over the crossbar, to the shock of all watchers worldwide. 

Half time probably brought starkly contrasting feelings to both dressing rooms. United maybe thought that this could’ve been their day, seeing that they held up relatively well defensively and were given a gift in Haaland’s open goal miss. City probably felt frustrated but also encouraged by the nature of the first half, and that a goal would have to come eventually. And they were right, the second half started and United retreated even further into their deep block as City popped the ball back and forth in the final third, waiting for the key pass to reveal itself. Rashford and Garnacho at times tried to relieve the pressure for their defence by sitting high into the all but vacant City half whenever they were fortunate enough to have a sniff of the ball; but each attempt in behind was promptly snuffed out by the enforcing Kyle Walker. 

Finally, 10 minutes after the restart, the inevitable came to pass when the hosts equalized from a brilliant individual effort from none other than the local boy, Phil Foden cut inside of United defender Victor Lindelof and curled one into Onana’s top left corner. A goal as good as Rashford’s first to level the game. 

From there the siege on United’s defence continued and everyone watching essentially knew how the game would go. It took a little longer than the City faithful were likely comfortable with, but United’s legs were clearly growing tired with each passing minute; easily seen with the ease of which Foden’s and Julian Alvarez’s one – two combination pass broke through the lines, putting Foden through before he slotted the ball in across Onana into the goal to make it 2-1 with 10 minutes of the 90 remaining. Heads in red shirts dropped while those in sky blue were rolling on a high of yet again getting one over on their former bullies of yesteryear. The blue icing on the cake came in added time when United substitute Sofyan Amrabat was dispossessed of the ball near his goal after a poor pass from Casemiro, Erling Haaland then went through and cooly curled the ball into the far corner for City’s third; atoning for his bad miss in the first half. 

It’s quite romantic that in such a dominant performance in a team full of world beaters, it’s Stockport-born City academy graduate Phil Foden that is the star of the show. He’s earned his stripes and his place within this team over the last number of seasons, despite the times he’s gone a few games without starting and all the claims and rumours that manager Pep Guardiola didn’t rate him highly enough. After the stellar performance, Pep couldn’t be more complimentary of the 23 year-old. 

“He was always a talented player but now he is more mature and understands more of the game, especially defensively. He can play middle, right, make moments and cut inside, play in the left, scoring from the left” Pep went on about Foden in a post game interview.

“What can I say? He’s the best player in the Premier League right now for the amount of things he does. Unbelievable.”

The gulf in class was clear to see in the latter stages of the game especially when it came to the substitutions either coach made. City do have the luxury when it comes to reinforcements, the ability to bring on players of quality such as Julian Alvarez shouldn’t be sneezed at; but the decisions from Ten Hag do evoke questions. Bringing on youngsters, Willy Kwambala and Omari Forson during the end of the game rather than more experienced players such as Christian Eriksen almost serves the belief that he didn’t believe that United could win this game; considering the first sub was made when the game was still level with 20 minutes of the 90 left to play.

With this result, City remain second place in the league, still one point behind Liverpool after their last minute win in Nottingham and one point above Arsenal after their six goal trouncing of Sheffield United. Manchester United now sit six points behind Spurs in sixth place; a top four finish becoming unlikely considering Spurs also have a game in hand and fourth place Villa sit 11 points clear of them. However Erik ten Hag holds a positive view point for the remainder of the season.

“It can be a quick turnaround” he said after the game.

“It can be an advantage that fifth spot can also be a Champions League spot, so we have to go for it and win our games.”

United still have to play Aston Villa and Spurs before the end of the season, so favourable results from those fixtures could prove Ten Hag right.

United head back to Old Trafford to play a relegation battling Everton, a game that potentially could kick start their top four push. Meanwhile, Man City head to Anfield to play league leaders, Liverpool, surely a game to have heavy ramifications on the title race.