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Despite their recent improved form, Manchester United must have arrived at the Etihad fully aware of the difficult task they had on their hands. They were about to take on the swashbuckling, free-scoring and defensively impervious Citizens, and nobody looked at them as the favorites.
But going by the intensity of the old rivalry between the two sides of Manchester, and Jose Mourinho’s combative nature, it was not entirely unreasonable to expect some sparks to fly in Sunday’s derby.
Although United’s dominance over their sky-blue neighbors spans more than a century, City have unexpectedly emerged into a formidable enemy in the Premier League era. United - the most successful English club of our times, boasting 13 Premier League titles in 26 years - are struggling. They have been an unstable ship since Sir Alex Ferguson called time on his stay at the helm.
At almost exactly the same time, the Citizens have seen their stock grow. The neighbors who were barely surviving in the previous century, playing in the third tier of English football in 1998/99 when United won the fifth of their 13 Premier League titles and raked in a treble, are the dominant force in English football now.
In Sunday’s Manchester derby, with goals from David Silva, Sergio Aguero and Ilkay Gundogan, the Citizens emphasized their new bragging rights. The defending champions maintained their incredible run as they pipped the Red Devils 3-1.
Despite a somewhat cautious start in the first half, City regained their composure to produce an impressive performance that put them back at the top of the table. They are now ahead of Liverpool, who had briefly occupied the top spot after their 2-0 win over Fulham earlier in the day.
Silva handed City an early lead 12 minutes into the game, before Aguero made it a comfortable cushion of two just three minutes into the second half. But that assurance would be shortly tested.
Anthony Martial pulled one back from a spot kick for the visitors 10 minutes later. This was in the aftermath of Ederson’s tackle that brought Romelu Lukaku down in the box.
When United came visiting last season, they went 2-0 down before turning the tables to win 3-2 in a scintillating comeback. Many City players must have thought back to that disappointing April encounter when the penalty was struck.
But United struggled to create much after that, allowing the champions to regain their two-goal cushion with only four minutes remaining. Gundogan slotted home from close range, punishing United for some sloppy defending.
City wrapped the match up in beautiful fashion, walking away with bragging rights once more. They can no longer acquiesce with the underdog label that forced fans to the self-deprecating anthem, "We are not, we're not really here. Just like the fans of the Invisible Man, we're not really here."
The current breed of the Citizens, bankrolled by Abu Dhabi, may even take Grace VanderWaal’s City Song and flaunt the reprise, “Let's take the city and make it our song”.
