Ten-man City beat Manchester United 1-0 at Old Trafford as Erling Haaland’s second-half goal settled a dramatic derby.
City played for more than an hour with ten men after Phil Foden was shown a straight red card in the 23rd minute following an incident with Bruno Fernandes, but Enzo Maresca’s side recovered superbly to maintain their perfect Premier League start.
United had been the better side immediately before the dismissal and came close to taking the lead before half-time when Marcus Rashford struck the woodwork from a free-kick. City, though, remained composed and reached the interval level.
Maresca made a change at the break, with Iliman Ndiaye replacing Rayan Cherki, and United went close again six minutes into the second half. Kobbie Mainoo’s excellent effort from 25 yards hit the post, rebounded off Gianluigi Donnarumma and somehow stayed out.
City made the most of that escape nine minutes later. Josko Gvardiol’s deflected delivery reached Haaland, who finished from a tight angle to put the visitors ahead. A lengthy VAR check followed for a possible offside, but the goal stood.
United pushed for an equaliser, but City refused to spend the remainder of the game simply defending their penalty area. Elliot Anderson and Enzo Fernandez gave them control in midfield when they regained possession, while Ruben Dias and Marc Guehi were excellent in front of Donnarumma.
Anderson, in particular, grew into the game after Foden’s dismissal and produced an outstanding midfield performance as City repeatedly frustrated United despite their numerical disadvantage.
Harry Maguire headed narrowly wide as the hosts searched for a way back, before Donnarumma produced a superb save in the fifth minute of stoppage time to turn Bryan Mbeumo’s shot over the bar.
That proved to be United’s final opportunity, and City saw out the remaining seconds to secure a fourth Premier League win from four under Maresca.
Given the circumstances, this was comfortably the most impressive of them. City were down to ten men after 23 minutes at Old Trafford but still found enough control, resilience and quality to leave with all three points.
Man City: Donnarumma; Nunes, Dias, Guehi, Gvardiol; Anderson, Fernandez (O’Reilly 81); Foden, Cherki (Ndiaye 46), Semenyo; Haaland.
Substitutes not used: Rulli, Kovacic, Reis, Bouaddi, Allan, Khusanov, Lewis.
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