Manchester City Avoid Slipping On Their Potential Old Trafford Banana Skin And Are Back On Top Of The Pile! For United, It’s Sorry Ole Again! Match Highlights. Player Ratings. Comments, And Stats.
By: Marc Gingell
Manchester City went into this Old Trafford derby with a perfect 10 out of 10 back to back wins in the Premier League. Now it’s 11 out of 11 and questions must be asked about Liverpool’s name being on the trophy.
With three games to go and a seemingly an unbeatable goal difference, City are on 89 points. Liverpool are one point back on 88. They have to win their final three games and pray that City drop two points somewhere during the run in. But where?
- Away to Burnley on Sunday? Maybe. Burnley like to spoil a party!
- Home to Leicester 6th May? No. City can’t lose their final home game of the season.
- Away to Brighton 12th May? No. Chris Houghton’s team might be trying to stay up but they don’t have enough quality.
Match Details
| 24-04 | Old Trafford | Manchester United | v | Manchester City |
| KO:20.00 | ATT: 74,431 | Bernardo Silva 54′ | ||
| REF: A Marriner | Leroy Sané 66′ | |||
Manchester City’s Silva Linings!
Earlier in the season David Silva (DS) showed immense quality and looked to be one of the players who could be the Premier League Player of the Season. His slide rule passes were behind so many City goals. DS continues to show quality and put in a man of the match performance against United.
Out on City’s right Bernardo Silva (BS) is looking unstoppable and any defenders, who let him move inside on to his left foot, are asking for trouble. Luke Shaw found that out as BS fired City in front.
DS and BS are similar players in stature. They are both 1.73 m tall and weigh in at about 65 kg. They also both seem predominantly left footed. How can they play in the same team? They are lightweights! For the answer go to Pep Guardiola and his superb coaching skills.
Manchester United Set Up
Against City, teams have a tendency to be conservative with their set up. It’s a damage limitation mentality as teams fear City winning by four, five or six. The attitude is, and most managers admit it, City will beat us but we don’t want to be embarrassed and that’s exactly how United set up.
For 53 minutes the plan worked. Out on the wings Ashley Young and Shaw tried to push Raheem Sterling and BS down the outside and most of the time it worked until the 54th minute. Shaw didn’t react quickly enough and BS cut in and fired home from just outside the box. Twelve minutes later Leroy Sané put the game to bed.
Jesse Lingard
Jesse Lingard, playing in a forward position, had a great chance to equalise just after BS scored. The ball broke to him, inside the six-yard box on the left, for what looked like a simple tap in. But he completely missed his shot.
Quality
In terms of quality, there is a massive gulf between City and United. At the start of the season, when questions were asked about which United players could walk into City’s team, David de Gea would have been the first name on many peoples lips. Maybe even the only name! But not now. Ederson has moved above him and United have conceded 50 goals in the Premier League for the first time.
Despite that de Gea has been United’s best player for many years and the reason for his drop in form could be down to the quality in front of him.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n25uGBtV_P4
Player Ratings
Man Utd: De Gea (4), Young (6), Darmian (5), Smalling (6), Lindelof (6), Shaw (5), Pereira (5), Fred (4), Pogba (6), Lingard (4), Rashford (5)
Subs: Lukaku (4), Sanchez (NA), Martial (NA)
Man City: Ederson (8), Walker (6), Kompany (5), Laporte (7), Zinchenko (7), Gundogan (6), Fernandinho (7), David Silva (8), Bernardo Silva (8), Sterling (7), Aguero (7)
Subs: Sane (7), Danilo (NA), Jesus (NA)
Man of the match: David Silva
- Manchester City have won seven away Premier League against Manchester United at Old Trafford – more than any other team.
- Manchester United have now lost seven of their last nine games in all competitions (W2 D0 L7), after losing just one of their first 17 under manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer (W14 D2 L1).
- Man City boss Pep Guardiola is the first manager to win three consecutive away Premier League matches at Old Trafford against Man Utd and only the third to win three away matches there, along with Arsene Wenger and Gerard Houllier.
- Manchester United are without a clean sheet in 12 consecutive matches in all competitions for the first time since August 1971.
- In combining for the second goal, Leroy Sane (10 goals, 10 assists) and Raheem Sterling (17 goals, 10 assists) both reached 10 goals and 10 assists in the Premier League this season; the only other player to do so is Chelsea’s Eden Hazard.
- Man City end the night top of the Premier League, overtaking Liverpool – this is the 28th time the lead has changed hands at the end of a day, the joint-most in a single Premier League season (also 28 times in the 2001-02 season).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZp8YFMev4M
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