Manchester City 4-1 Manchester United (De Bruyne ‘5, ’28, Mahrez ’68, ’90+2 | Sancho ’22)
Kevin De Bruyne stood over the ball and the Etihad held its breath. If there was to be a moment when he sealed his hat-trick, this was likely it, as his free-kick rippled through the Manchester United defence.
Instead, after his 50th and 51st Premier League goals the playmaker had to settle for an assist for Manchester City‘s third of the afternoon as he teed up Riyad Mahrez’s half-volley from the edge of the box.
By then, the damage was done. It had taken just five minutes to carve United open, a 1-2 from Bernardo Silva and Jack Grealish – starting ahead of Raheem Sterling – on the left bewildering Victor Lindelof and Alex Telles. De Bruyne was waiting in the middle to execute.
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With no Cristiano Ronaldo, and Marcus Rashford starting on the bench, what United’s attack lacked in turn was a focal point. Fortunately what Paul Pogba does not lack is vision, catching sight of Kyle Walker out of possession and sending Jadon Sancho on his way.
There was only a muted celebration from the City academy graduate, whom it was always assumed would return to the Etihad when he came back to English football via the Bundesliga. He would not have been out of place judging by the way he deceived Walker, cut inside and fired past Ederson.
For all United’s defensive folly, the equaliser was deserved. They were not able to keep the pace with their rivals, though – a metaphor in there somewhere for the past nine years – and tellingly, Maguire, Lindelof and Aaron Wan-Bissaka’s flailing got worse.
De Bruyne rightly put City back in front, his second coming thanks to an exquisite bit of skill from Foden as he chipped the ball over a Lindelof’s head and it pinballed around the box for a moment before De Bruyne crafted the finishing touches.
Maguire was arguably lucky to stay on the pitch after an ill-judged challenge on De Bruyne as he hared down the line. Wan-Bissaka did not even get close to his man.
United had problems at both ends, failing to engineer an attempt in the second half. “They’ve given up,” said Gary Neville on commentary in response to a spell of 92 per cent possession for City. “I get the fact it’s hard, they’re playing against a top team, but they’re walking.”
Before kick-off, Martin Tyler had teasingly asked him who he wanted to win, given that three points for United would render Liverpool winning the title and going level with the Red Devils on 20 make more likely.
Neville will not lose sleep over the possibility. City fans only stopped their “Oles” for a chorus of “mind the gap”, and for a moment thoughts of Liverpool were secondary. This was another fine mess from United and one relished by the champions.
Mahrez made it all the more painful in injury time with his strike bouncing in off De Gea.
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Manchester City
- Ederson 7
- Kyle Walker 6
- John Stones 7
- Aymeric Laporte 7
- Joao Cancelo 7
- Kevin De Bruyne 9
- Rodri 7
- Bernardo Silva 7
- Riyad Mahrez 8
- Phil Foden 8
- Jack Grealish 8
Substitutes:
- Ilkay Gundogan 6
Manchester United
- David de Gea 7
- Aaron Wan-Bissaka 3
- Victor Lindelof 4
- Harry Maguire 4
- Alex Telles 6
- Fred 6
- Scott McTominay 6
- Anthony Elanga 6
- Paul Pogba 7
- Jadon Sancho 7
- Bruno Fernandes 7
Substitutes:
- Marcus Rashford 6
- Jesse Lingard 5
Roy Keane: United’s players were shameful… five or six shouldn’t play for the club again
Despite causing City problems in the first half, United barely lay a glove on them in the second, failing to have a single shot on target.
Unsurprisingly, given that damning statistic, Roy Keane ripped into the players after the game.
“United players have shown quality over the years but we’ve just seen a reflection of where the team is and where the club is,” he said on Sky Sports.
“They are so far behind the other teams, some of the players… there’s ways to lose football matches, but the way we saw United today… play with a bit of pride. Whatever’s going on in the dressing room, we’re hearing noises all the time and problems with the new manager coming in and recruitment’s not been [good] but your own bit of pride has to kick in at some stage.
“There was players there and we were watching it live and I’m getting really frustrated watching it because I’ll forgive mistakes but you’ve got to run back. There was five or six players who should never play for Man United again.- Just shameful, shameful.”
He added: “City weren’t even at their very best, City didn’t even have to be at their best. I thought City had another couple of gears to go, they just toyed with them, a bit like the game at Old Trafford. The old saying, men vs boys. They gave up and shame on them.”
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