Under the floodlights
Red vs Blue as Manchester sides meet for 179th time
When Newton Heath LYR and St Marks of West Gorton first played it was a million miles from the river Amazon, never mind the eponymous digital giant who streamed their first English Premier League games in the week leading up to the 179th Manchester derby.
If you type “Newton Heath v St Marks Gorton” into Google it shows the Manchester derby but that’s one of the few nods to the past in a fixture that has become very much part of the global game.
Those teams, as they were then known, first met in 1881, with the home grounds at the time Hyde Road and Bank Street. The names and where they call home may have changed but the rivalry has dimmed little.
The Manchester power balance has shifted in recent years and it is the blue half of Manchester that goes into this derby at their new Etihad home, close to their original East Manchester roots, as the top dogs.
Pep Guardiola’s City side have won back-to-back titles while United have not won since Alex Ferguson retired in 2013. The first of them saw City set a new bar with more than 100 points while last season they saw off rivals Liverpool with 98 points to the Anfield side’s 96.
When these sides meet under the floodlights at the Etihad on Saturday evening, it will be 130 years since the first time that electrity powered the lights as well as crackling in the stands.
There have been other firsts in the years since. While Sandy Turnbull was not the first player to swap sides he was the first to be sent off in a derby. That dubious honor came in 1909, the year after Turnbull and four others swapped City for United after their bans for match-fixing expired.
But enough of the past, what of the present. City need the points. They are 11 points behind Juergen Klopp’s quite remarkable Liverpool side. The Reds put their disappointment at not having finished champions of England for the first time in 29 years past them to finish Champions of Europe for a a sixth time and have assaulted the Premier League like men possessed this season.
Party time
City put the pressure on them with a win over Burnley to get past the disappointment of dropping points to Newcastle United last weekend and will want to keep that on at the Etihad after Liverpool battered Everton 5-2 on Wednesday night. It was a win that City’s Rodri said led to “having a party in the dressing room” after the game. How they will party with a derby win under their belts come the final whistle on Saturday.
That they are so far off the pace behind Klopp’s side is all the more remarkable given the consistency of Pep Guardiola’s side over the last two seasons.
As for Manchester United, their interests are rather more prosaic than the title that they have lifted a record 20 times.
Bragging rights are first and foremost the most important thing, even if they might help Liverpool to a 19th English title. Beyond that, they need the points to get towards the top four Premier League spots and a guaranteed place in next season’s UEFA Champions League without having to win the Europa League which currently occupies them on most Thursday nights.
The axe
For their manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, the game is one that might be more of slef interest. The Sun reported that the Norwegian manager had told his players this week that the axe will fall on his time at Old Trafford this week depending on the results against Tottenham Hotspur and in the derby.
Solskjaer, to his eternal credit as a club man, played that down before Tottenham travelled north. He claimed it would not be season, never mind, career defining.
“Four days, that’s not going to change a whole lot,” he told reporters in the lead-up to Wednesday’s game. “Of course these two games are great chances for us to prove things and prove to ourselves that we can continue in the vein we’ve had against some of the better sides. We’ve had some good results against good teams and we’ve got a plan for Wednesday night.”
The Spurs game was one of added spice as he faced the man that he replaced, Jose Mourinho, who had newly arrived in North London. More to that, there was added interest as Mourinho replaced Manuel Pochettino, the man many saw as the next logical appointment at Manchester United before Solskjaer got the job and, now he is back on the market, the Norwegian’s most likely successor.
It was a chance in the lead-up to Christmas to exorcise the ghost of Mourinho past and they took it. Mourinho, who got a great reception from the fans for his swift stint in charge at Old Trafford despite it ending acrimoniously, is an ideal pantomime villain, even though he said he was not. “I am not a villain, I’m not an enemy he said,” as if playing the role perfectly.
He also joked that he’s making a Netflix documentary, in the lead-up to the game – funnier still because he was on camera for Amazon who are making a behind the scenes documentary with Spurs.
That still leaves the small matter of the league champions, who come into the game after a 4-1 win against the usually scrooge-like Burnley, and away at the Etihad at that.
“We just need results,” Solskjaer said before the visit of Spurs. He got one on Wednesday with a 2-1 win but what awaits across Manchester on Saturday night?
The latest manager to try to right the ship after Ferguson left in 2013 needs another win, even if it might hand the title incentive firmly to arch rivals Liverpool. Another loss to City will be a nightmare before Christmas for him and the United faithful, wherever in the world they are watching.