Manchester City certainly proved critics wrong when they triumphed over Manchester United at Old Trafford.
Some might have said that the 165th Manchester Derby between United and City would be less of a spectacle in terms of what is at stake. This couldn’t have been further from the truth.
Going into tonight’s game, United held a 15 points lead with less than 10 Premier League games to go. In the past, a derby game may have won either side the League, but as City manager Roberto Mancini has said recently, this is not looking likely.
The earlier fixture saw United come out on top 3-2 with a late van Persie free-kick at the Etihad Stadium. For Manchester City, tonight’s game was consolation and largely a regaining of pride over their bitter rivals.
Always a feisty and passionate encounter, 8 yellow cards were shown in a game which saw Manchester City win 2-1.
An open game in the first half saw the sides go in level at the break. The quality of attacking play and creativity from both teams was there, but there was a lack of any real attacking endeavour.
City were the first to go ahead 5 minutes after the break. A schoolboy error from veteran Ryan Giggs eventually saw the ball arrive at James Milner’s feet where his deflected shot found its way in.
Cue ‘the Noisy Neighbours’
United haven’t not scored on home soil in over three years and the inevitable happened when a brilliant free-kick from van Persie found its way onto Vincent Kompany’s head and went in.
An end-to-end game always needed a bit of quality and that was found from Manchester City substitute Sergio Aguero who scored after a mazy run.
Cue ‘the Noisy Neighbours’
The Premier League season will fail to live up to the hype it did throughout last season. Manchester City did deserve to win today but have not performed effectively throughout.
It is still mathematically possible for Mancini and Manchester City to retain the title, but this would of course require serious bad form for United.
van Persie is however suffering from a serious goal-drought so you never know…
All Part of the Game 