Half of Manchester will be jubilant on Sunday night after a 1-0 win over United gave City their sixth derby win in the last seven meetings. Whilst the scoreline may not tell the full story, the win was probably deserved for the blue side of Manchester. Sergio Agüero scored his tenth league goal of the season in as many games on derby day in the north-west.
The game saw the return of Samir Nasri to league action after a few weeks out. The Frenchman started from the bench like he did in Wednesday’s loss to Newcastle and came on in the second half. Eliaquim Mangala was dropped from the squad thanks to a hip injury he picked up that meant Martin Demichelis came in. Mangala might have some work to do to win his place back after a strong performance from Demichelis.
Meanwhile, United started with the most expensive side in Premier League history at £241 million. Marcos Rojo and Wayne Rooney both returned, as did Antonio Valencia who played at right-back as a result of Rafael’s injury.
The first half started as most would have expected it to: tentatively. Neither side really grabbed control of the early stages, but the wingers worked hard to find openings for their respective teams. Agüero came closest to opening the scoring from the left-hand side of the box when his shot required a save from David De Gea, who did well on a few occasions in the first half.
Despite those chances, the biggest incident of the first period was the dismissal of Chris Smalling for two bookings. While neither were questionable as bookings go, Louis van Gaal won’t be happy with the former Fulham man. His first came following a United attack which ended with the ball in Joe Hart’s hands. As Hart went to kick it, Smalling got in the way to block Hart’s kick which resulted in a booking. Minutes later, Smalling walked following a foul on James Milner on the left. The red card almost certainly changed the game, giving City new confidence just minutes before half-time.
City came out for the second half and took control of the game. Their endeavours down the wings produced some good chances to cross which ended up blocked by the United defence which was by this point hit by injury as well as a red card; Marcos Rojo went off early in the second half with a dislocated shoulder, with Paddy McNair his replacement.
It took a little under 20 minutes of the second half before The Blues finally had their noses in front thanks to Agüero on 63 minutes. Yaya Touré played an inch-perfect ball through the United defence to Gael Clichy running in from the left, who had to sprint to keep it in. His first-time cross found its way to Agüero further inside, who only needed one touch to fire it past the diving hands of De Gea to put the hosts inside and make sounds of joy and ecstasy erupt from three sounds of the ground.
Despite the one-goal and one-man advantages, City did well to hold on to their lead after a tough and sustained period of pressure from United in the last 20 minutes gave them chances to get back in the game. With Yaya Touré moving further upfield in an effort to grab a City second, the visitors started to overrun City in midfield as Angel Di Maria started to dictate play. United’s best chance came through the Argentine winger on 78 minutes, as he got the ball down the right and his shot forced a low, very good, save from Joe Hart.
Whilst there’s most certainly things that still need to be looked at in the City team, there is a lot to be taken out of the derby. Several players put in great performances, including Clichy, who only started due to a late injury to Aleksandar Kolarov in the pre-match warm-up. Yaya Touré also looked like he’s getting back to somewhere near his best after putting in the effort and being involved in most of City’s attacking play. Agüero looked sharp as usual, Kompany led well from the back, Demichelis dealt well with the threat of Robin van Persie and Fernando did the breaking-up work we’ve come to know over the past couple of months.
With some important games coming up over the next few weeks, a win in the derby was extremely important. CSKA Moscow visit The Etihad on Wednesday night, but if City had gone into that game on the back of four poor results, who knows what would have happened? Improvements are still needed, but it’s a good performance and a great result for City. More of the same now, eh Blues?
