We were not there. The aching howl of Pep Guardiola lamenting the arresting defeat at Southampton. He was right. Manchester City, adjusted down a notch or two to rest the established core, were harried into uncharacteristic errors at St Mary’s, which stripped them of their hauteur. Like Samson shorn of hair, City were emphatically ordinary until the Thunderbirds arrived late on.
You imagined the figure of Erik ten Hag huddled before a monitor screaming “yes” as he watched City crumble. This is how it is done. Match City’s work-rate, shut down space with the same intensity, deny them time and watch the passes go astray. Ten Hag could not have wished for a more timely demonstration of City’s mortality. Southampton, the Premier League’s bottom club, refused to retreat as others do, stood their ground and took them on.
City, unaccustomed to any form of resistance or rebellion, appeared not to know how to respond. The psychological realm they dominate was invaded by an opponent showing neither fear nor respect. City were all over the place as a consequence. We have seen traces of this before when opponents with sufficient belief have the courage to play their own game, not City’s. Brighton under Graham Potter, Liverpool, Lyon have all had a go and succeeded.
Nothing lasts for ever. It is one of the wonders of the modern age that Guardiola has been able to maintain standards week after week, after month, after season with barely a let-up in desire and application. Sir Alex Ferguson spent a quarter of a century at Old Trafford winning 13 league titles and two European Cups, a reign that becomes ever more remarkable with the passing years, but rarely did his teams dominate a season as categorically as City under Guardiola.
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The restoration of Rashford, Manchester United’s spirit beacon who embodies the essence of the club, is surely evidence of the centrality of the gaffer. Since losing at Aston Villa in the deep, pre-World Cup past, United have rattled off eight successive wins in all competitions. In that sequence Rashford has clobbered the net eight times, failing to score in only one match. For those who like a lusty connection, Cristiano Ronaldo’s final involvement was at Villa Park in November. Rashford sent Ronaldo on his away with an affectionate social media post. The real love has flowed on the pitch.
In the relationship between Ten Hag and his players the power rests with him at this phase of the association. He presents as a paternal overlord to whom all must answer. The players submit to his authority and lo, the whole edifice is rocking again. No United manager has clocked 20 wins quicker than him.
Ten Hag won’t allow himself to ponder the passing of peak Pep. The Southampton defeat might well result in a searing response that makes City even more potent, yet we cannot unsee what happened on Wednesday. City’s pre-eminence is not inevitable. And if they fail to respond to Guardiola’s prompts, or Guardiola can no longer summon the energy to lead, City are condemned to deflate, to slip back towards the pack, if only by degree.
Ordinarily the rushed arrival of Burnley cast-off Wout Weghorst to make United’s squad for the derby would once have been viewed as a vivid expression of the gulf between the sides, a desperate lunge to plug a gap. In the early swell of the Ten Hag resurrection it might yet carry a whiff of genius should the Dutchman deliver the weight of performance from the bench that shivered the timbers of Messi and Co in a World Cup quarter-final that was slipping away before his intervention.
When Weghorst replaced Memphis Depay with 12 minutes remaining, the Netherlands were 2-0 down. Two goals, the first a tidy header, the second, applying the finish to one of the ballsiest free-kicks in World Cup lore in the 11th minute of added time, turned the contest on its head. Weghorst is not Erling Haaland. He doesn’t have to be. An approximation to the Etihad Odin would suffice.
When the sides met on the second day of October, City were four up by the break, eventually easing to a 6-3 victory. The outcome played out to a familiar rhythm, City’s eminence utterly accepted by United, the result foretold by a meek subordination. Ten Hag’s challenge was always to snap United out of their deference, to banish the sense of inferiority felt in the age of Guardiola. United don’t have to beat City at Old Trafford. The requirement is to unshrink themselves, to approach the derby as if they were facing Charlton, Everton, Forest or Burnley, to be the United of Ferguson and Busby. If they pull that off the results will ultimately take care of themselves.
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