The Manchester Derby was another one sided performance between Manchester United and one of the title contenders, as Manchester City swept them side with a 3-0 win, getting two goals from Edin Dzeko and another one from Yaya Toure.
David Moyes gets to witness his team in weird tactics throughout the match lose to another one of the top 4 sides, further deteriorating his extremely poor record against the bigs and generally at home, falling behind right off the bat and not being able to make things better as the match progressed.
The match started with incredible pressure from the Manchester City front six on the hosts, resulting in a goal after less than 70 seconds, with a completely disorganized and stunned Manchester United defense couldn’t stop from Edin Dzeko reaching a rebound first, opening the scoring for the visitors, giving City a quick 1-0 lead. The following minutes didn’t bring any goals, but more pressure from Manchester City, until Manchester United finally started moving the ball as David Moyes started shifting around playing in the midfield 18 minutes into the match.
Manchester United finally started showing up after a missed opportunity from Edin Dzeko, getting a brilliant save out of David de Gea. Juan Mata had the chance to find an open Danny Welbeck at the goal mouth, but good defending from Vincent Kompany denied an equalizer.
Things did become more even in the following minutes with Manchester City trying to slow down the match, while Manchester United keep on searching for counter attacks through Juan Mata, moving to the middle, Wayne Rooney and Danny Welbeck, but the final cross (yes, crossing again) kept reaching an alert Joe Hart. In the 29th minute Fellaini elbowed Pablo Zabaleta and was lucky to walk away with just a booking. Manchester United grew more dominant in the minutes before half time, but aside from a Mata shot that went over the bar, nothing really special happened.
Shinji Kagawa came on in the beginning of the second half, but while David de Gea was struggling with his ankle injury, Manchester City were the ones getting the best of the early chances, dominating the pitch and getting a close range header in the 52nd minute which Fernandinho really shouldn’t have missed. Four minutes later, another corner found a wide open Edin Dzeko flying in the box, connecting with the ball in the air off the Nasri cross to make it 2-0.
In the 65th minute an awful Marouane Fellaini came off while Antonio Valencia, still with a swollen eye, came on the pitch in an attempt to change things and widen the pitch for a Manchester United side that seemed completely clueless since the beginning of the second half.
The 80th minute provided a free kick from Wayne Rooney that forced Joe Hart to stretch a little bit, but overall, the desperation substitutions and tactics from David Moyes didn’t change the match at all, with United looking like a team that’s not going to score well beyond the 90 minutes of the match. Manchester City don’t need too much to score, and Yaya Toure scored the best goal of the match with a fantastic shot from the edge of the box, finishing a play he began with a wonderful pass to James Milner on the wing, returning the ball back to the Ivorian midfielder, sealing a third consecutive win for Manchester City at the Old Trafford.
Until Liverpool play their match against Sunderland, Manchester City move up to second place, three points behind Chelsea but two matches left to complete. Manchester Untied remain seventh, now five points behind a place that leads to European football.