Pep Guardiola's City won the Manchester Derby firmly establish their superiority over Jose Mourinho's United.
They came. They say. They conquered. The team Ferguson had deemed Manchester United’s ‘noisy neighbours’ are no longer just noisy, they are heads and shoulders above their cross-town rivals. They were noisy too, as blaring music from the away dressing room saw Jose Mourinho clash with Man City goalkeeper Ederson asking him in Portuguse, 'who the f*** he thought he was?'
Mourinho felt that the City players were not showing enough respect to the hallowed turf of Old Trafford, but the truth is- that ship sailed a long time ago. Since Ferguson left, Manchester had been firmly Blue, no matter who’s been in charge.
However, the arrival of Pep Guardiola last season and his second-season fine-tuning shows that City are now way better than their more prestigious rivals.
The Manchester Derby at Old Trafford was a chance for Mourinho to show that United could still compete with City, but the first half clearly showed the gulf in class between the two teams. United were playing with their back to the walls throughout the first half, pinned by the slick passing of the City’s forward players.
In fact, Guardiola didn’t even bother playing a striker, leaving the prolific Sergio Aguero on the bench and instead played a forward line of De Bruyne, Sterling, Sane and Jesus with David Silva.
Manchester United take pride in playing attacking football ‘taught by Matt Busby’, but on Sunday it was City who were playing with panache, while United players appeared catatonic, afraid to even take possession of the ball.
The goals however, were a tad scrappy in comparison to City’s style of play but the only one who can be blamed for that is United’s sloppy defending. The Mourinho team failed to do basic Mourinho things, particularly in the first half. The City forward line completely ran circles around the players in red and they couldn’t even defend their positions properly, something a classic Mourinho team was supposed to do.
The irony of it was that it was City fans singing ‘Park the Bus’, while Manchester United fans shouted ‘Attack, Attack’, alarmed by the home team only keeping 25% possession in the first half.
Somehow, the score was 1-1, Rashford scoring after a bizarre Fabian Delph error, but City regained their lead in the second half and while United improved, the men in blue were by far the superior team.
Mourinho had his usual moan after the match, harping about the Herrera penalty, claiming the football gods were with Man City, but the truth is as Pep Guardiola reminded us, that Manchester City were simply better in every department.
For Jose Mourinho and Manchester United, it’s time to go back to the drawing board and perhaps focus on the cup competitions because one thing is abundantly clear. The league is almost over.
As is the writing on the wall. Manchester is Blue. City are no longer the noisy neighbours, they are by far the better team and legions of Manchester United fans across the world will simply have to get used to the new status quo.
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 "Pep Guardiola and Jose Mourinho")
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