Pogba’s revenge
City’s title party is put on hold as Frenchman delivers timely double
IT merely delays the inevitable — but given that they are no longer even the best team in their city, Manchester United will take what they can get.
Offered the chance to seize temporary Mancunian bragging rights, Jose Mourinho’s men did so in the most dramatic fashion.
Indeed, so convoluted was their victory yesterday at the Etihad — City’s first defeat there in the Premier League since 2016 — that at times it reminded you of the Manchester City of old.
There they were in full cry, cruising towards a recordbreaking title win with games to spare. Two-nil up at half time, United were plainly embarrassing themselves.
It was pretty awful for Sir Alex Ferguson when Sergio Aguero wrested the championship from them with the last kick of the season in 2012.
But as he watched the first half yesterday, the Scot might have reflected this seemed worse; at least they were in that title race and were not surrounded by City supporters.
Pep Guardiola’s swaggering team, with a clutch of reserves, were weaving their magic and the party was in full swing. Mourinho was reduced to muttering at the fourth official.
And then Paul Pogba, anonymous up until then, took a step forward. The player United thought they had signed for £89million, suddenly emerged.
His two goals in 97 seconds transformed the game before a volley from Chris Smalling won it.
The start was tetchy and very aggressive. Ashley Young felled Raheem Sterling. Nemanja Matic was leaving his mark on a few City players. Vincent Kompany, the most experienced man on the pitch, looked nervous, misplacing passes.
There was little coherence to the game. It had the frenzy of an old-style Mancunian derby but little of the technique.
United even looked content early on. After all, this was a City side resting Kevin de Bruyne, Kyle Walker, Sergio Aguero, Gabriel Jesus and Aymeric Laporte.
The team beaten up by Liverpool was only partially present and the Champions League return leg on Tuesday was uppermost in City’s mind. It was not close to their best side and, as such, you felt a full- strength United should cope.
Yet, notwithstanding their capitulation at Anfield, Guardiola’s men have usually found a way to sparkle in the Premier League, whatever team is picked.
So it was yesterday. City were virtually invited to take control when United conceded an unnecessary corner in the 25th minute.
Leroy Sane lifted the ball in and his captain, Kompany, looked a man possessed as he hunted down the ball. Smalling had hold of his shirt — had the Belgian not scored it would have been a penalty — but it made little difference. Kompany sprinted, rose and headed home.
Taking the lead from a set-piece was a nod to their English roots. Thereafter, they returned to the Dutch-Catalan mindset, but again they were aided by United.
David de Gea’s weak kick out in the 31st minute was seized by Sane, who threaded the ball through to David Silva. He played in Ilkay Gundogan and, with an elegance characteristic of this team, spun round while back-heeling the ball into a shooting position and struck home decisively.
Mourinho was unsettled. He grumbled to fourth official Craig Pawson. He stood defiant in the technical area. But he knows when a team is insufficient for the task.
His players mustered nothing by response. Instead, he looked on as Sterling spurned the opportunities to turn a healthy start into a rout. In the 33rd minute, he was played in by David Silva and, with time and space, lifted the ball high over the bar.
Three minutes later, Silva again the provider, he did similar. In fact, 4-0 would not have flattered City at that stage. United looked far from a Mourinho team — unsure of their shape and second best by far. Conventional wisdom suggested the visitors could not be as lame come the restart, that Mourinho would insist on a reaction. Yet City’s capacity to humiliate their neighbours was evident.
The moment was there to be seized. And when Sterling played in Gundogan in the 51st minute and the German lifted another chance over the crossbar, there was little to suggest the imminent riposte.
Yet Pogba, always the centre of attention — just seemingly never for his football — sensed a time of reckoning.
Hair dyed light blue — former United skipper and TV pundit Gary Neville was aghast — and with the game passing him by yet again, he did what so many have been waiting for over the last 20 months: he took hold of the match and wrested the momentum from City.
His first goal owed as much to intricate build-up play by his teammates and the dexterity of Alexis Sanchez, wriggling away from Nicolas Otamendi to tee up Herrera.
He deftly chested the ball into the path of Pogba and the French star prodded home to induce some hope.
Less than two minutes later, he had the United supporterss in defiant rapture.
This time, he orchestrated the moment. Robustly winning the ball back in midfield, he found Sanchez, who floated in a precise cross.
Pogba had continued his run and rose beautifully to power a header home. Now the game changed.
City were knocked out of their stride for the second time in five days. They attempted to recover their fluency but a key component was missing — the swagger which fuels them.
Then came a moment no one could have envisaged at half-time.
Sanchez lifted a free-kick into the City area, neither Otamendi nor Kompany responded and Smalling volleyed home a deft finish.