The 188th Manchester Derby took place on Sunday, October 2. Manchester United have historically dominated the matchup, winning 77 as compared to Manchester City’s 52 going into Sunday’s clash at the Etihad Stadium. The Cityzens, as Manchester City are known, may still be a long way away from matching United’s 77 derby victories, but the way in which they demolished United this weekend will go a long way to curbing any disappointment at that statistic.
Put simply, City ran riot at their home ground as Erling Haaland and Phil Foden notched a hat trick apiece. Phil Foden set the tone for the day with a goal in the eighth minute, before Erling Haaland grabbed a quickfire brace, scoring in the 34th and 37th minutes to set the score at 3-0. The home side then went up 4-0 just before half time, with Foden snagging his second goal of the match on an assist from Haaland, and even that scoreline didn’t do their performance in the first 45 minutes justice. This match looked like a preseason game between professionals and a youth team, but where the professional team were in peak midseason form.
Manchester United did manage to get off to the best possible start of the second half as new summer signing Antony smashed in a long-range effort just 10 minutes into the second period. There was an aura of tension around the game as a result, with memories of United clawing back a 3-3 draw from 3-0 down in 2018 to prevent City from winning the title against their most hated rivals still all too fresh in Manchester City’s minds. But in keeping with the trend the Sky Blues have set in recent years, they simply kept on scoring, with Haaland bagging his third goal of the match just eight minutes after United had grabbed some semblance of hope. United’s misery was compounded even further less than another 10 minutes later as Haaland set up Foden once again, sealing his teammate’s hat trick with a second assist of his own.
To give United credit, they did their best to save some face at the tail end of the game. Anthony Martial came off the bench on his return to the field from injury to grab a goal in the 84th minute after Fred saw his shot from a tight angle saved. He then followed this up with a penalty kick goal in injury time, putting some slight gloss on an abysmal evening for United.
This result was fairly surprising given the form of United entering this game. Since losing their opening two matches to Brighton and Brentford, United had won their previous four league games, including wins against Liverpool and league leaders Arsenal. But all of that good form fell apart as the defense looked as leaky as ever. That is bound to happen to some degree when playing the likes of Jack Grealish and Kevin de Bruyne, but to fall apart as United did is something else entirely.
City on the other hand nailed on to win every competition they are playing in this season. Haaland is a monster up top, averaging an astounding 1.6 goals per game in the league, while de Bruyne once again looks to be the best player in the league. Ruben Dias is still as imperious as ever, and Bernardo Silva is once again consistently among the best players on the pitch. Anything short of the quadruple will be a disappointment.