Manchester City have beaten Manchester United 6-1 once before, at Old Trafford even. It was way back in 1926. They have won only once at Old Trafford in the last 37 years, until today. Until David Silva brought forth his finest game of his career, Mario Balotelli woke up on the right side and the Manchester United defense, with Alex Ferguson watching helplessly from the sidelines, fell apart.
This win, like the 5-1 that Manchester City fans love to remember, from 1989, won’t be worth a damn thing if City don’t finish above Manchester United in the table at the end of the season, preferably with a championship, their first since 1968. However, unlike the 5-0 defeat at the hands of Newcastle from over a decade ago, this won’t be another day in the history of Manchester United.
It was Ferguson’s worst ever, he even admitted it to be. He also blamed his players for persisting the attack, despite being 3-1, 4-1 down, with 10 men. I wonder, if he felt it to be such an unwise tactic, couldn’t he have tried to stop what was happening? We just kept attacking. They were attacking three versus two. It was crazy football. I thought with the experience we’ve got, they would defend more, but we just kept attacking. Sometimes there has to be common sense about it. It was a bad day.
Ferguson didn’t think that this heavy defeat will derail his title hopes, despite Manchester City now opening a 5 point gap. We’ll come back. By January we’ll be okay. We usually get the show on the road in the second half of the season and that will have to be the case. We’ve played all the teams around us and they have all to play each other so the second half of the season is important to us now.
On the Blue side of Manchester, it’s less about hopes and more about the present, and keeping this momentum going. Undefeated, five points ahead of United, six ahead of Chelsea and Newcastle (irrelevant) while Arsenal, Tottenham and Liverpool won’t be bothering them for the title. They could disrupt their chase though. But not today.
Everything worked for Mancini. Mario Balotelli was focused, and when he is, life is much more easier for everyone. David Silva needed some time to adjust, but eventually, City’s passing game, through Silva and Toure, started working. The second and third goal were fantastic. The sending off of Evans? Perfect. United’s blind belief they could comeback? Delightful.
Edin Dzeko came off the bench and scored one goal with sheer luck and the other to knockout the proud turned humiliated Reds. His, and David Silva’s extra time goals were just cruel. United fans kept praying to hear the whistle, which didn’t come, while David De Gea kept picking up balls from his net. it’ll be interesting to see if this will be some sort of confidence builder or breaker for the young Spaniard.
Manchester City are deeper, and currently, simply better than Manchester United. In terms of individual talent, there’s no doubt. Right now, they’re also the better team, something Alex Ferguson usually takes pride in. United are still fantastic. This loss just showcased their flaws, especially in the middle. The ever changing midfield and Ferguson’s inability to find the right pairing or trio, while life without Vidic and Smalling playing on the wing makes defending very hard.
One response to “Alex Ferguson’s Worst Defeat (Manchester City vs Manchester United)”
Good article
Loved the outcome, but trying to keep it in perspective. Until Balotelli’s goal, even though City put out a relatively attacking line-up United had most of the possession and City were just sitting back defending.
And while the sending off was the right call, you can’t (or at least I can’t) use what happened in the second half to compare the two teams because even for United, to play a man down for 45 minutes is just going to create too much open space.