City have been dealt a painful warning!
CITY’S winning run is over, and with any luck the bizarre wailing that they have ruined the Premier League will end with it.
Pep Guardiola’s side have built up what still appears to be an unassailable lead at the top of the table despite a disappointing 2-0 derby defeat that sees their lead cut to 11 points with 10 games to go.
Whatever this may or may not spark over the rest of the season, what this game did show was just how idiotic the suggestion has been recently that City’s dominance in this season – or indeed future years – was expected.
As remarkable as their 15-match winning run in the league has been in this exceptional season has been quite how feebly all of their rivals have folded.
City’s exceptional form came as their rivals turned rubbish, yet this game showed that good sides can cause them problems and take points off them in the right conditions. Having looked so invincible for so long, it was a dreadful and nervous start from the Blues at the Etihad as they conceded a penalty within 35 seconds.
Gabriel Jesus gave the ball away in his own half, Rodri failed to win it back when the opportunity presented it and then Jesus bundled over Anthony Martial for a nailed-on spotkick.
Ederson will feel he should have kept out Bruno Fernandes’s effort too having got such a big hand on it.
Luke Shaw could easily have made it two in an opening five minutes that produced more chaos in the City box than their last five matches probably have combined.
United had the early lead, and with it the opportunity to do what they do best against sides that are better than them: sit back, soak up pressure and try to play on the counter.
The decision to leave Kyle Walker on the bench helped them, with Joao Cancelo not only slower than his teammate but also outpaced by a speedy United forward line.
John Stones was calm and assured on the ball but too few of his team-mates were in the first half.
It took 25 minutes for them to test Dean Henderson and Kevin de Bruyne and Raheem Sterling were particuarly wretched whenever they broke into the final third.
Guardiola has, for months, been anticipating a challenge for his team where they would be put under hardship and had the opportunity at half-time to address his players and do all that he could before they returned to the field to try to reverse the scoreline.
They had responded positively to conceding in four of their last six games, but this was the first time since November they had trailed in the Premier League.
Rodri hitting the bar within minutes of the restart suggested City would pick up where they left off, putting pressure on Henderson’s goal, but they were undone almost immediately afterwards to make their task all the more difficult.
While the City bench was shouting at how long the United keeper was taking when he had the ball, Cancelo was too hasty to dive in as Shaw cruised past him, De Bruyne and others too slow to react to the developing situation as the left-back exchanged passes with Marcus Rashford and fired past Ederson into the bottom corner.
With 40 minutes to go, there was plenty of time to get back into it, but the rhythm was lacking. The Blues have built their recent success on all team-mates working in harmony on the pitch, yet too often here they were getting in each other’s way as wave after wave of attack passed without troubling Henderson.
It said a lot about the starting XI that it took two substitutions from the manager to earn some decent chances, and said even more about the overall performance that City still couldn’t score.
Phil Foden worked a promising situation first, but when he picked up possession again in the box eight yards out his finish should have at least worked the goalkeeper.
Walker then put in a glorious cross that Sterling failed to convert.
Collectively to a man, with the exception of the excellent Stones, City weren’t good enough and United played very well to their strengths, taking their opportunities while defending well to keep an underpar opposition at bay.
That was enough for them to pick up a very good three points and end the outstanding winning run of their nearest rivals.
It may well be enough to spark a collapse at the Etihad and revitalise a title race that looked to have run its course, but at the very least it should dispel the lazy notions that Guardiola’s side were destined to win this league because of pre-determined conditions.
They are where they are because they have performed considerably better than this for their last 15 league matches and because United and others have not played well enough on a consistent enough basis.
The players will have to take this as a lesson - after all, if they don’t, Guardiola will make sure they don’t get back into the side.
As they approach the business end of the season, this was a welcome reminder that if they are not at the top of their game, they will be beaten.
If they progress as far as they would like in the Champions League, they will face better teams than United.
But the rest of English football should also take note of this game and realise that this City team is beatable when they drop their standards and there is enough belief and quality in the opposition XI.
If City win this Premier League title as they should from this position, the distance between the champions and each team below them will possibly say more about each rival than it will Guardiola’s side.