Key events
Thanks for your company and emails today. We’ll leave you with Jamie Jackson’s report from the Etihad. Goodnight!
Man City reaction
Phil Foden
We had extra motivation coming into the game – it was for [Ricky Hatton], his family and the people suffering right now. It wasn’t a pretty match but the way we ran… it was all for him and we’re delighted with the result.
[On his performance] There’s been a lot of talk, all of it quite negative, but that’s the world we live in. When you’ve been player of the season I understand that [expectations] are higher. It’s about reading the comments, trying to react as best I can and getting back to my level. [On Haaland’s display] Yeah, it was a complete performance. He did everything – holding the ball up, defending, attacking, running in behind, doing the dirty work and pressing for the team.
Erling Haaland
We needed this. You always want to win the derby but you could feel a little extra [motivation] today. I’m so relieved, I’m so happy that we could do this together.
We have to keep going, and we have to keep this guy going [taps Foden] because we need him so much. We’ll help him as much as we can to make him as good as he was the season before last.
[Haaland receives his player of the match trophy] It could have gone to Donnarumma. He was unbelievable!
Full time: Manchester City 3-0 Manchester United
An excellent day for Manchester City, who will hope that this ultimately emphatic victory kickstarts their season. Phil Foden scored the first and showed flickers of his best form, but the day was all about Erling Haaland. He was immense in every facet of the game – including as a leader – and scored twice in the second half.
Man Utd weren’t awful and would have been back in the game had Gianluigi Donnarumma not made a remarkable save from Bryan Mbeumo at 2-0. But they looked what they are right now, a lower mid-table team with the weight of the world on their shoulders.
90+4 min Bobb wiggles his hips in the United area, not once or even thrice, and pushes the ball back to Foden. He screws a shot off target but it doesn’t go out of play and Bayindir has to make a block tackle, essentially, on Reijnders.
90+3 min Dorgu heads across goal and wide from Fernandes’s cross. Looks like Gianluigi Donnarumma will keep a clean sheet on his City debut. There wasn’t much excitement about his signing but he is a potential gamechanger for City. In every sense, he’s a giant of a goalkeeper.
90+1 min Reijnders almost tees Foden up for No4. Maguire makes a decent tackle and Reijnders blasts the loose ball across the face of goal.
90 min One troubling thing for United is that they haven’t been terrible in this game, yet they’ve still been hammered by a City side who were apparently yesterday’s news.
In my opinion it’s a two-year job, minimum, for United to become even a competent Premier League side. And you reset every time you sack the manager.
88 min: City substitutions Nathan Ake and Oscar Bobb replace Bernardo Silva and Erling Haaland, who receives a standing ovation after producing the complete centre-forward performance.
87 min An exchange on Sky Sports just now.
Peter Drury “What do you Manchester United take from this game?”
Gary Neville “Erm…”
86 min Now Dorgu misses a half chance, spraying wide with his right foot.
Chance for Casemiro!
85 min The resulting corner is punched away by Donnarumma to Fernandes on the edge of the area. He cracks a left-foot shot across goal that bounces past Casemiro – who was six yards out with an open goal – and wide.
Casemiro looked offside but replays showed that wasn’t the case. The bounce, and the fact the ball came through a crowd, made it trickier than it first looked.
84 min Amad twists O’Reilly inside out on the right side of the area. Then he smashes a low cross that hits Mbeumo four yards from goal and ricochets wide. Actually the shot hit Donnarumma’s toe but I think it was going wide anyway; Mbeumo had no reaction time.
82 min Mbeumo, 25 yards out, whips a lovely curler that flashes just past the far post with Donnarumma scrambling. On another miserable day for United, he has played pretty well.
81 min Any judgement on City should be deferred until after their trip to the Emirates next weekend, but the performance – and sheer power – of their spine has been hugely encouraging: Donnarumma, Dias, Rodri, Haaland.
It’s also worth mentioning Phil Foden’s excellent first-half performance. If he gets anywhere near the level of 2023-24, and there’s no reason he shouldn’t, City will be a completely different team.
80 min: Man Utd substitutions Mbeumo skies an awkward volley with his right foot. Before play resumes, Man Utd bring on Casemiro and Joshua Zirkzee for Manuel Ugarte and the subdued Benjamin Sesko. He needs time, like we all do.
79 min Mainoo swaggers quietly away from Gonzalez, a small reminder of his abundant class, and leads a six-on-four break. He plays the ball out to Dorgu, whose low cross is cut out at the near post by Khusanov.
77 min: Double substitution for City Jeremy Doku, who was terrific and played a major part in the first two goals, and Rodri, who was and indeed is Rodri, are replaced by Savinho and Nico Gonzalez.
75 min: Great chance for Reijnders!
It should be 4-0 to City. Haaland, just past the halfway line, waited for Reijnders’ blistering off-the-ball run and played a beautifully weighted through pass. Reijnders moved into the area, dummied Bayindir and then chipped the ball over him. It looked like a perfect, swaggering finish… until the ball faded past the far post.
73 min Dorgu’s chipped cross reached Amad beyond the far post. He controls it and gets away a shot that is well blocked by O’Reilly (I think). The rebound comes to Ugarte, 25 yards out and he mistakes himself for Arie Haan. Goalkick to City.
Erling Haaland has destroyed Manchester United – and breathed new life into Manchester City’s season. United’s defending for the goal was a bit of a mess. The last man Maguire had to nip in to tackle Haaland, but that meant Haaland could run behind him – from inside his own half – to receive Bernardo’s early ball into space.
The rest was inevitable. Haaland galloped into the area, opened his body and sidefooted the ball past Bayindir. It’s rare you shout ‘goal’ when somebody is 50 yards from goal but that’s exactly what happened up and down the country.
A routine finish for Haaland, sure, but his overall performance has been sensational.
GOAL! Man City 3-0 Man Utd (Haaland 68)
Maaaaagnificent!
67 min “City’s bench features a Divine, while United’s contains a Heaven,” notes Peter Oh. “Is the Premier League some sort of football paradise?”
64 min Bernardo Silva’s flat cross is met on the volley by the leaping Haaland, 12 yards out at the near post. A deft effort but straight at Bayindir.
Haaland isn’t finished today; he’s playing with the optimum level of controlled aggression.
62 min: Double substitution for Man Utd Harry Maguire and Kobbie Mainoo replace Leny Yoro and Noussair Mazraoui.
That means Amad will go to right wing-back.
61 min: Stunning save from Donnarumma!
City’s new keeper Gianluigi Donnarumma provides a spectacular demonstration of his reach and reactions. Mbeumo waited an age for a cross from the left to drop onto his left foot at the far post. When it did he whacked a terrific volley back across goal; it was heading for the bottom corner until Donnarumma dived full length to his right to fingertip it behind.
That’s just a brilliant save, the kind we’ve seen from Donnarumma so often down the years.
57 min The last man Shaw makes a vital lunging challenge on an increasingly rampant Haaland.
55 min: Haaland hits the post!
How did that stay out? De Ligt, sold short by Ugarte, played a slightly desperate ball out of defence that was cut out by Reijnders. His early forward pass was dummied neatly by Doku, allowing Haaland to run clear again. He ran straight through Bayindir but then stabbed a shot through the legs of De Ligt and onto the inside of the far post. Even though he was off balance, he should have scored.
54 min Goals are Haaland’s currency, always will be, but this is one of his best all-round performances, at least in the games I’ve watched. His link play and defending at set pieces have been exemplary, and through is intensity he has dragged the other players with him.
That was a lovely team goal; classic City. O’Reilly nutmegged Ugarde to find Foden, who quickly moved the ball forward to Doku on the edge of the area. He pinned Yoro and guided an early pass down the side to Haaland, who rumbled away from Shaw and lifted the ball coolly over Bayindir from eight yards. Beautiful goal.
GOAL! Man City 2-0 Man Utd (Haaland 53)
Erling Haaland’s superb performance is rewarded!
51 min Fernandes flicks a clever pass into the area for Dorgu, who is just starting to dream of an equaliser when Rodri makes a typically unobtrusive interception.
48 min Haaland heads away at the near post, then clears Dorgu’s follow-up cross for good measure.
A few seconds later Haaland completes his hat-trick with another header clear from Dorgu’s cross.
47 min Amad finds the overlapping Dorgu, whose dangerous low cross is kneed behind for a corner by Ruben Dias. Fernandes will take it…
46 min No changes on either side as Bryan Mbeumo gets the second half under way.
A panting Bernardo Silva is giving his half-time thoughts to Sky Sports. No thanks!
Half-time reading
Some memories in here!
“After Liverpool Fergie-Timed their way to victory earlier, it’s nice to relax with a game where I genuinely don’t care what happens,” writes Matt Dony. “I guess, as a ‘neutral’, a draw is the best outcome points-wise, and a City win is probably the best outcome for my evening’s WhatsApp, but I can live with any result. Ideally, no goals for Haaland, though.”
Stop! (It’s) Arne Time (now).
Half time: Man City 1-0 Man Utd
Phil Foden is rarely than mad for it on derby day and his cathartic goal has given City a deserved lead at half-time. There wasn’t a huge amount in the game, and United had some promising attacks without really working Gianluigi Donnarumma. But City were just a bit more penetrative, with Foden, Jeremy Doku and Erling Haaland all making life difficult for United’s defence.
45 min Dorgu, quietly relentless down the United left, wins a corner off Khusanov. Fernandes takes, Donnarumma punches away without fuss or faff.
43 min We’re seeing a replay or three of the Foden goal while there is a break in play. Foden’s header was accomplished but the best bit was Doku’s sleight of hip to beat Shaw on the edge of the area.
40 min Haaland rarely gets much credit for his link play but it has been superb today, really deft. He has also played with an eye-catching intensity. The other players are hardly phoning it in but Haaland has probably been the most dynamic on either side.
38 min O’Reilly pops up on the edge of the United area to control a straight pass from Reijnders, turn and spank a half-volley high and wide.
I think Reijnders’ pass was intended for Haaland, who had made a textbook angled run, Ian Rush-style, into the space.
37 min Rodri’s eyes light up when he spots an angled pass that could put Bernardo Silva through on goal. Shaw steps forward to make a vital interception.
35 min Fernandes takes the resulting free-kick, whipping a dangerous inswinger into the six-yard box. None of the United players can reach it and Donnarumma claims comfortably.
34 min For reasons know only to himself, Khusanov sends Dorgu flying to give Man Utd a free-kick on the left wing. It was a bouncing ball and Dorgu was going nowhere, but Khusanov suddenly went into Beast mode.
33 min Sesko has a shot blocked by the outrushing Donnarumma after an excellent pass from Mazraoui. It wouldn’t have counted as he controlled the ball with his arm on the stretch.
31 min This is a better period for United, who had to survive a bit of an onslaught after Foden’s goal. Now they are getting on the ball again.
29 min Mbeumo, fractionally offside, runs through on goal from Ugarte’s crossfield pass. Play was allowed to continue and Mbeumo splashed a shot well wide with his right foot.
28 min Mbeumo scurries into space on the right, onto a short pass from Fernandes. He gets to the edge of the area, assesses his options and lifts a cross that is headed away well at the far post. Not sure who the defender was, possibly Khusanov, but he needed to clear because there were two United players behind him.
26 min United are hanging on their 1-0 deficit. Haaland beats Yoro beautifully in the centre circle, rumbles forward and gives the ball to Bernardo Silva. City have a four-on-three break so it’s a surprise that Bernardo plays an instant return pass to Haaland. He can’t control an awkward ball and United clear.
Source From: Premier League | The Guardian
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