The sensational David Silva was at the heart of everything city did, his technique, ability to find space and use of the ball in a positive manner produced one of the stand out performances of the season so far, mixed with the industrious display of England’s James Milner and the shear determination of full back Micah Richards to get up and down the right flank it was joy to behold. The enigma that is Mario Balotelli capped a solid performance with two goals including the first half opener that was superbly placed from the outside of the box , following that goal he found himself in trouble with the official for what has to be the worst rule in football, taking off your shirt to celebrate. Manchester United’s uncharacteristically lack lustre display saw some of the worst defending Old Trafford has witnessed with Ferdinand, Evra and Evans all wanting the famous turf to open and swallow them up at some point during the match. United found themselves stifled creatively by the well organised city defence and unfortunately two many of their plays had a bad game to get anything out of this one.
After nearly three years of threatening to dislodge United from the lofty heights of the Premier League that they have dominated since its inception in the early 90's, city have finally backed up their off field 'noise' with the performance on the pitch and with a 6-1 score line they have thrown down the gauntlet to their detested rivals. Of course the citizens have had to spend big to create some parity between the two sides and if they are successful in claiming the league championship this season many United fans will be quick to point out that City have ‘brought’ the title in their opinions, however the Red Devils have been ‘buying’ the league title for years. Manchester United over the past 10-15 years have set the precedent for big money signings and big money salaries, just look at these statistics:
Year | Manchester United | Manchester City |
| 98/99 | £27,750,000 | £1,480,000 |
| 99/00 | £17,800,000 | £7,450,000 |
| 00/01 | £0 | £13,250,000 |
| 01/02 | £57,000,000 | £32,700,000 |
| 02/03 | £29,050,000 | £10,250,000 |
| 03/04 | £53,350,000 | £9,800,000 |
| 04/05 | £27,200,000 | £0 |
| 05/06 | £19,500,000 | £9,750,000 |
| 06/07 | £18,600,000 | £2,400,000 |
| 07/08 | £61,750,000 | £45,820,000 |
| 08/09 | £35,750,000 | £127,700,000 (Abu Dhabi United Group takeover) |
| 09/10 | £21,000,000 | £125,000,000 |
| 10/11 | £27,200,000 | £154,750,000 |
| 11/12 | £52,900,000 | £82,000,000 |
| Total | £421,650,000 | £622,350,000 |
The figures clearly show that up until the Abu Dhabi United Group takeover city were significantly in United’s shadow both on and off the pitch, and to obtain a squad capable of challenging their bitter rivals city needed to invest substantially to turn mediocrity into supremacy and this past Sunday was the culmination of three years worh of mind blowing extravagance in the transfer market. However regardless of money a squad still needs to be built and Roberto Mancini has done an excellent job organising, gelling and galvanising this collection of highly talented players into a well oiled machine. I like many others had my doubts about the Italian when he first joined the citizens but this was partly due to the manner in which his predecessor Mark Hughes had been dispatched, but he has turned all those who doubted him into believers with a steely determination and tactical astuteness. In the derby he got all the big decisions right, he picked Mario Balotelli after another eventful week off the pitch that ended with a BANG, he scored two goals, Mancini went with Milner who had arguably his best game since joining the club and ultimately the manager got his substitutions right with Edin DΕΎeko coming on to score two, it was a majestic performance for both the playing and coaching staff. United however will come away from the weekend feeling dejected but history tells us that they will bounce back, find form and be challenging right until the final whistle of the final match, it was only 3 games ago that United were playing every team off the pitch, Rooney was scoring two or three goals a game and the newer younger talent coming through was out shining some of the existing players, therefore I fully expect United to be back to winning ways sooner rather than later.
City have put down a marker and set a precedent in the their opening nine games, they are undefeated with a record number of goals scored at this point in a season, the Premier League and Europe’s elite be warned the Citizens are coming!
