Well that was infuriating!

Manchester United have had an up and down season to say the least, with a loss against Hull, a comprehensive win over Ipswich, conceding a late equaliser against Everton and then a strong return to the Champions League against Sabah, but the Manchester derby gave a first major test for Carrick in his permanent role, and one that he largely failed.

With a huge amount of controversy from the Foden red card to the eventual City winner, but United can only look inward at the performance against 10 men for over 70 minutes of action, and yet failed to lay any real marker on City, and while they will feel infuriated by the goal against, they need to be much better if they are to get this season back on track.

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Teams

Manchester United: Lammens, Dorgu, Martinez, Maguire, Dalot, Mainoo, Tielemans (Sesko 67′), Rashford (Zirkzee 83′), Fernandes, Mbeumo, Cunha

Subs: Darlow, Heaven, Yoro, Mazraoui, Santos, Mount, Lacey

Manchester City: Donnarumma, Gvardiol, Dias, Guehi, Nunes, Anderson, Semenyo, Fernandez (O’Reilly 82′), Cherki (Ndiaye 46′), Foden, Haaland

Subs: Rulli, Khusanov, Lewis, Reis, Bouaddi, Kovacic, Allan

Manchester United 0-1 Manchester City

The 199th Manchester derby delivered no shortage of drama at Old Trafford, as Manchester City edged Manchester United 1-0 on Sunday afternoon in a fiercely contested Premier League encounter. The decisive moment came from Erling Haaland shortly after the hour mark, but City’s victory was shaped just as much by the controversy surrounding Phil Foden’s first-half dismissal and the visitors’ impressive defensive resilience. With the atmosphere increasingly tense, City were forced to play for more than an hour with ten men, yet they stood firm to claim the derby spoils.

The game burst into life in the 23rd minute when Foden was shown a red card following a clash with Bruno Fernandes. United subsequently had the numerical advantage but struggled to turn their extra man into sustained pressure. Their best opportunity before half-time came when Marcus Rashford’s curling free-kick from around 30 yards struck the post, while City reorganised impressively into a compact shape. Kobbie Mainoo then went agonisingly close early in the second half, his curling effort beating Gianluigi Donnarumma but clipping the foot of the post.

Against the run of numbers, City found the breakthrough on 60 minutes. Joško Gvardiol’s deflected cross found Haaland at the far post, and the Norwegian calmly turned the ball home. The goal went through an extended VAR check, with Haaland eventually confirmed to be onside. However, the decision sparked fierce debate because Enzo Fernández had appeared to be in an offside position during the build-up. The Premier League Match Centre initially explained that Fernández had not played the ball, while subsequent reporting stated that refereeing body ProRef acknowledged an error in allowing the goal to stand.

United pushed desperately for an equaliser in the closing stages, but City continued to frustrate their hosts. Fernández came close to a second when his effort was tipped onto the post, while Harry Maguire headed wide from a corner. Then, deep into stoppage time, Donnarumma produced the save of the afternoon, throwing himself across goal to deny Bryan Mbeumo and preserve City’s lead. The final whistle confirmed a remarkable derby victory for a City side that had spent most of the match a man down, while United were left to reflect on a frustrating afternoon in which they twice struck the woodwork and failed to make their numerical advantage count.

Talking Points

Staring in chronological order, the first talking point has to be the Foden red card in the 23rd minute. With Bruno Fernandes doing his trademark irritating role against the opposition, he riled up Foden and despite having a little dig at the player who had been fouled prior, the Englishman kicked out against Bruno and of course this event spotted by the referee resulted in a straight red card and gave United a huge early advantage. While it was in slightly controversial terms given Fernandes’ involvement in the event, and also probably could have been yellow cards all-round and move on, United were on the up at this period and had hoped to make this advantage pay.

However, United couldn’t capitalise on their advantage, and in the 60th minute, a deflected cross saw Erling Haaland unmarked at the back post, as Martinez made the choice to follow his man Enzo Fernandez who made a clear attempt to play the ball in an offside position, but according to both the referee and VAR teams his involvement didn’t warrant chalking off the goal and instead after a several minute VAR check, it was awarded in hugely controversial fashion, with the refereeing body almost instantly having to publish an apology for their clear and obvious error, but this leaves little consolation for United who miss out on a point and see huge question marks against their start to the campaign.

Despite these 2 highly controversial moments in the game, United really need to look at their own showing, as a game with such emotion and feeling from the fan protests, the derby atmosphere and the events taking place, they were so poor in all areas of the pitch. Once again, only Kobbie Mainoo really comes away with any credit for his efforts, but the attack were completely off the pace, the defence were sloppy and the tactical substitutions and changes from Carrick were arguably too late in the game, and also left United’s key creative force in Bruno Fernandes far too deep as United went for the ‘all-out attack’ approach of putting every single attacking option on the pitch at once, to no avail.