TAKE THAT CITY!
United seal derby double
Ignore for a moment the fact that for many Mancunians this victory may well bring forward a date with dreaded destiny, when Liverpool win their first Premier League title.
Ignore, too, those contrarians mocking Manchester United’s ecstatic celebration at the end, citing it as evidence that roles have reversed and it is Manchester’s reds who are now the city’s small club.
This was a huge performance and an even bigger win for Manchester United. It was a milestone result under ole gunnar Solskjaer, a game-changing performance for a team that no longer appears to be in transition but heading towards a very positive point of arrival.
Bruno Fernandes has transformed this midfield in a way Paul Pogba was supposed to, but did not. Fred looks a player, Anthony Martial a match-winning striker at last. As for the defence, they held strong, particularly in the second half when Manchester City dominated in search of a goal. If anything, Victor Lindelof looked even more resilient than Harry Maguire.
It is an irony that players signed by Jose Mourinho are far closer to justifying their purchase under his successor Solskjaer. Perhaps it is simply the passing of time and experience in the Premier League. Perhaps Solskjaer is prepared to devote more of his energy to understanding and correcting their flaws.
Certainly, he is getting a tune out of Martial, whose four goals in five games is his best run since october-november 2018.
Martial is shouldering the burden in the front line alone, with Marcus rashford out.
After an unconvincing start, he is rising to the occasion and Solskjaer deserves credit for that, too.
He didn’t have many options, true, but he persevered with Martial and has been rewarded. Manchester United are now a win off Chelsea in fourth and only five points from Leicester in third. They may not need UeFA’s ban on Manchester City to stretch Champions League qualification to fifth place after all.
So that’s the good news, from a United perspective. now the bad. If Liverpool keep winning, they will clinch the title on March 21 at home to Crystal Palace — the earliest it has been won in english football history.
only four teams have secured it with five games to spare — Manchester City 2017-18, Manchester United 2000-01, everton 1984-85 and Manchester United 1907-08.
Liverpool would have seven fixtures remaining.
Of course, it could be even earlier if Manchester City slip up against Arsenal or Burnley — indeed, there is a permutation in which Liverpool have enough points already.
Whatever the future holds, it will be painful for United. If anything, they would rather City won a third straight title than Liverpool a first. Yet it is going to happen, we all know that.
So, yesterday, United had to do their job and not worry about ramifications elsewhere.
Everything about them was right. Their attitude was feisty and combative, their work-rate superb.
The possession statistics made it look a one-sided contest, suggesting City had the best of the game and were unfortunate. To the naked eye, it simply wasn’t like that. United had the better chances and should have had a penalty if English football had any clue how to implement VAR competently.
And beating City has not been so common of late. This is the first season United have done the league double over them since 2009-10 and only the second time they have beaten them at Old Trafford in the last decade. Solskjaer is the second manager in history to beat Guardiola three times in the same season — having also secured victory in the Carabao Cup semi-final second leg.
So it was deserved. Indeed, so desperate were City for their equaliser near the end that, in the final minute of injury time, Ederson — who had a very poor game — completely overcooked a throw intended for Nicolas Otamendi, which fell to Scott McTominay. He struck it first time towards the unguarded goal from long range and United had the winning margin their performance merited.
City did not look comfortable from the start. Oleksandr Zinchenko and
Ilkay Gundogan both made mistakes that could have let United in and Otamendi was lucky to escape a caution having cleaned out Daniel James.
So when Fernandes was brought down by Gundogan outside the City penalty area to the left, there was plainly danger, given the dead ball expertise of United’s January recruit. So it proved.
He’s a smart thinker, Fernandes, and lifted the ball in a cheeky scooped lob, up and over the City defence, wrong-footing Sergio Aguero who was the nearest man to Manchester United’s runner Martial. He hit a low first-time shot at the near post where Ederson was beaten at a tight angle in disappointing fashion. While City complained that the free-kick leading to the goal was soft, United had far greater cause for complaint shortly before half time when Fred was brought down in the penalty area by Otamendi.
Not only did referee Mike Dean not give it, he booked Fred for diving.
Further sloppiness from Ederson almost cost a goal shortly after halftime when City’s goalkeeper miscontrolled a back pass in his six-yard box. He ended up in a 50-50 with Martial who collided painfully with a post trying to convert his second.
Yes, it may have been different had City taken the first opportunity of the game after 10 minutes. Aguero caught Shaw in possession and fed Bernardo Silva, who played it across to Raheem Sterling. He had time to size up the target and curl a low shot that David de Gea parried.
In the second half, chasing the game, Phil Foden and Otamendi came close and Sterling missed an excellent chance from a Riyad Mahrez cross.
Yet this was United’s day and arguably United’s best win under Solskjaer this season — certainly since the corresponding away fixture in December. The recruitment over the last 12 months is working and this was the display of a team with the potential to go places.
There is pain to come first, whether on March 21 or whenever, but United should be optimistic.
AS imageS go, it felt entirely appropriate for the occasion; the rain pouring on to Pep guardiola’s bald head and streaming down his face as he stood forlornly on the touchline at Old Trafford.
The manchester City manager had finished the first half fidgeting with an over- sized black scarf, putting it on and taking it off. Now, at the final whistle, it was wrapped around his neck, sodden and offering scant protection from the elements.
guardiola hasn’t endured too many days like this, certainly not since a difficult first season in the Premier League. But it felt as though City’s problems in his fourth year at the etihad conspired as one against him here; as if it wasn’t just a manchester shower tumbling on his shoulders.
it seems a strange thing to say when guardiola’s team could still finish the season with another hat- trick of trophies if they can retain the Fa Cup on top of the Carabao Cup and build on a first-leg lead over Real madrid to challenge for the Champions League.
But guardiola clearly has work to do in the summer to reinvigorate City for what is expected to be his final season at the etihad. Liverpool’s march to the title may have been imperious but City’s defence has fallen apart. This was their seventh defeat — one more than in his back-to-back title-winning campaigns combined.
it is no secret that guardiola needs to sort out a defence that has struggled to replace the departed Vincent Kompany and injured aymeric Laporte. in midfield, they continue to lack a creative spark without Kevin De
Bruyne, who was missing yesterday with a shoulder injury.
They will also lose David Silva in the summer. The young man earmarked to replace him, Phil Foden, started yesterday but could not reproduce his Wembley performance from the Carabao Cup final a week earlier.
in attack, City have lacked a clinical, cutting edge this season. They rarely looked like opening up manchester United as they suffered a third derby defeat in three months. indeed, Sergio aguero’s main contribution was to lose anthony martial in the build-up to the first goal.
There were other, unexpected factors for City here though — like the blundering performance of ederson and an ineffective showing from Raheem Sterling who was eclipsed by the outstanding aaron Wan-Bissaka.
Credit to guardiola for trying to protect his goalkeeper afterwards, just as he refused to make a big deal of the contentious free kick awarded by referee mike Dean for United’s first goal. He described ederson as ‘exceptional’ and ‘extraordinary’, two words that didn’t spring to mind when he let in martial’s volley and then presented Scott mcTominay with the chance to score into an unguarded goal.
‘i don’t come to judge my players,’ said the City boss. ‘mistakes are part of the game — he will recover.’
it was left to Bernardo Silva to deliver harsher criticism. ‘it was a bad game for us, not acceptable,’ said the City midfielder. ‘We will have to watch the game back and listen to what Pep has to say. But a team like ours cannot lose this many games. We need to check what’s not going right and try not to make so many mistakes.
‘We know how good the manchester United players are on the counter attack, very aggressive. So our performance was not acceptable.’
informed of Bernardo’s comments, guardiola still did his best to strike a positive tone. ‘Unacceptable? i do not agree with him,’ replied the City boss.
‘When our opponent (Liverpool) is far away it is too much. They won all the games except one defeat and one draw. We are second.
‘i accept the situations like they are. in general, i am satisfied. We are not far away. at the end of the season with the club we are going to talk about the situation.’
Having resisted the opportunity on Friday to back up Jurgen Klopp’s complaints that United are a negative team over-reliant on the counter attack, guardiola’s frustration was evident as he reflected on this defeat.
‘it is not easy to attack seven or eight players in defence. it’s difficult, they don’t move. They counter attack really well.
‘Our game is there, we played really good in terms of coming here. They played long balls on the counter attack for Daniel James and anthony martial. They waited for our mistakes.’