Manchester City easily completed a league double over bitter rivals Man Utd as they eased to a 4-1 win at the Etihad on Sunday evening. The fixture was Ralf Rangnick’s first league one against traditional top six opposition, and the nature of United’s performance, especially in the second half, left much to be desired.
With Cristiano Ronaldo, fellow summer signing Raphael Varane and Luke Shaw unavailable, Rangnick chose to pair Victor Lindelof and Harry Maguire in the heart of defence and gave Anthony Elanga a start. The game started on the worst possible note for United- they barely had any kind of meaningful possession in the first five minutes, and City had the ball in the back of the net through Kevin de Bruyne.
The defending for De Bruyne’s opener was poor- Alex Telles kept pointing at the unmarked Belgian in the hope somebody would pick him up, and at the last moment, chose to slide in himself, but he was too late, and the City midfielder produced a cool finish from close range.
United produced a nice counter attacking goal of their own to equalise, with former City youth product Jadon Sancho finishing expertly from the edge of the box to bring the Red Devils back on level terms.
City’s recent form was the reason the likes of Sportsbet.io had them as strong favourites for this game, and they justified that tag with a superb performance that blew United out of the water.
Pep Guardiola’s men kept up the pressure and regained the lead just on 28 minutes- United gave away possession cheaply in their third, City pounced and despite the best efforts of the United backline and David de Gea to stop Phil Foden and Bernardo Silva’s initial efforts, they weren’t able to deny De Bruyne his second.
The Red Devils had 0 (yes ZERO) shots on target after the interval, and the final scoreline didn’t flatter City at all- they could’ve won by a larger margin. As the xG map above shows, United really didn’t offer much of a threat going forward.
The third goal came from a corner- De Bruyne’s one left everyone and arrived at the feet of Riyad Mahrez on the edge of the box, and the Algerian’s sweetly timed effort took a deflection off Maguire and past the hapless de Gea to make it 3-1 to the Citizens.
Mahrez put the icing on the cake with a second one towards the end, and although the linesman initially flagged it for offside, VAR ruled that Telles’ boot had kept the winger onside, and the goal was allowed to stand.
A defeat for City could’ve made things very uncomfortable in the title race, especially after that loss to Spurs, but they’ve given themselves plenty of breathing space at the top with this win. And for Rangnick, illustrated how much of a gap there is between the Red Devils and their neighbours.