A double from Kevin De Bruyne. A double from Riyad Mahrez. The double completed by City over United in this season’s Manchester derbies.
Just further confirmation of the divergent paths these one-time rivals are on in the English Premier League.
The 4-1 victory on Monday morning AEDT restored City’s six-point lead over Liverpool in its quest to defend the title and pick up the trophy for a sixth time in a decade.
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And where is United? Languishing 22 points behind City and now no longer even in the fourth and final UEFA Champions League place.
The result was so dispiriting from a United perspective that it left former club captain and seven-time Premier League winner Roy Keane utterly disgusted with the players.
“They gave up, and shame on them,” he told Sky Sports.
“I don’t know who’s running that dressing room. Look at (United captain Harry) Maguire, he had a poor game, is he having battles with Ronaldo, captaincy and all these things?
“Egos come into it, you leave egos at the front door, these guys are all about, ‘How am I looking? Are my boots nice? Is my hair looking good?’, play the game.
“You’re at Man United, we’re looking at the fans behind the goal and they know, they’re not daft, this team we’re supporting have given up.
“We’ll hear a load of rubbish over the coming days, we’ve heard it before, there’ll be statements, ‘Sorry about that, we’ll try it again next week’. It’s what you do on the pitch that interests me, not all the other garbage.”
Keane added that five or six players “should never play for Man United again” after a glaring lack of effort in the second half.
The fiery Irishman wasn’t the only United great to be left with a sour taste following the loss to their crosstown rivals either.
“It’s the first time (United manager) Ralf Rangnick has taken them against a proper team and they have been given a proper doing,” former captain Gary Neville said.
“As a Manchester United fan, it’s embarrassing.”
It was being outclassed at home and losing 2-0 to City in the derby in November that precipitated the firing of Ole Gunnar Solskjær. The final blow was losing to Watford – the team that was beaten 3-2 in the other overnight fixture that allowed Arsenal to dislodge United from fourth.
But United has been a work in progress since Sir Alex Ferguson retired back in 2013 after the club’s last Premier League title win.
Monday morning’s game produced only City’s second home derby win in the league in seven attempts. But while United and City both have a net spend of around A$1.35 billion on transfers in the last decade, the blue half of Manchester is the team regularly collecting trophies. United is enduring a five-year title drought since the 2017 Europa League triumph that can only be ended by winning the Champions League this season.
The European Cup is the priority trophy for City after losing the final last season to Chelsea, however sweet it will be to win the Premier League again.
United did have to cope without Cristiano Ronaldo, Edinson Cavani, Raphael Varane and Luke Shaw through injury or illness against City. That doesn’t fully account for how ineffective United was or how susceptible Maguire was in defence.
It took City only five minutes to go in front. De Bruyne connected with the cutback from Bernardo Silva and shot through Maguire’s legs and past goalkeeper David De Gea.
There was a glimmer of hope when Paul Pogba released Jadon Sancho and the former City player took on Kyle Walker before bending the ball into the net in the 22nd minute.
City took only six minutes to regain the lead. The move began with a moment of dazzling individual brilliance by Phil Foden flicking the ball over Victor Lindelof. While the shot was parried by De Gea, Bernardo Silva’s follow-up shot was only partly blocked by Maguire before United defender Alex Telles managed to knock the ball for De Bruyne to net again.
“They tried to press us and they played well in the first half,” De Bruyne said. “In the second half we found more opportunities.”
It was Mahrez’s turn to contribute the goals in the second half at the Etihad Stadium – starting with an assist from De Bruyne.
Mahrez connected with a corner from the Belgium playmaker with a half-volley that slightly deflected off Maguire before landing in the net in the 68th.
There was initially an offside reprieve for United in the 90th but then the VAR review did allow Mahrez’s strike to count, compounding the misery for United.
“If the second half is not our best I don’t know what we have to do, honestly,” City manager Pep Guardiola said. “I’m such a demanding man, but I know my limits and I know the players’ limits and the second half in all terms (was excellent).”
Maguire was devastated as he tried to analyse what went wrong.
“When we had the ball,” Maguire said. “We just gave it back to them far too cheaply, far too easily, we weren’t clean enough with our passing. And in moments where we did have chances to hurt them we weren’t clinical enough, we weren’t clean enough with the passing and the transitional moments in the game, especially in the second half.”