Manchester is Red – Michael Carrick with Dream Start to Manchester United Tenure

Last weekend saw Manchester United gain an emphatic 2-0 win over local rivals Manchester City, giving the Reds bragging rights for the rest of the season, and securing them 3 points in what is shaping up to be an exciting struggle for Champions League qualification in the Premier League.

United came looking for revenge after City had a dominant 3-0 win at home earlier this season, and revenge was well and truly served. The match was exciting from the start, with a Maguire header cannoning off the crossbar to deny the reds an early goal, and a great save from Donnarumma’s feet stopping Dorgu from finishing off a cross from Bruno Fernandes.

The other talking point in the first half was a studs up challenge by Diogo Dalot on City’s new signing Semenyo, which City fans were claiming should have resulted in a red card. The on field decision from the referee was a yellow, and was confirmed by VAR, with the justification that the United full back initially got the ball, and the studs were a follow through rather than a challenge using excessive force.

In the second half, United finally struck gold, with an Mbeumo goal coming in the 65th minute, after a lovely Fernandes run led the counterattack. Another goal came just 11 minutes later when Dorgu pounced on some poor defending from Rico Lewis, and latched onto a Cunha cross. Some would say City got off lucky with a 2-0 win, as 3 goals by Amad, Fernandes and Mount were ruled out for offside, as well as United hitting the woodwork twice throughout the game. Comparatively, the Blues only had one major chance when a Max Alleyne header was cleared off the line by Dalot, and United Goalkeeper Senne Lammens only had to make 1 save throughout the 90 minutes, showing how the Reds dominated the game.

Fans will say there is no excuse for a poor performance such as Saturday’s, particularly against a struggling United side

Whilst City are struggling with injuries at the moment, especially for their back line, fans will say there is no excuse for a poor performance such as Saturday’s, particularly against a struggling United side with a brand new manager in Michael Carrick. He was extremely pleased with his first game in charge, stating, “To put on a performance like that today, it was a special day. It was a nice feeling.”

One player who City would have been disappointed by is striker, Erling Haaland, who couldn’t get past United defender Lisandro Martinez all game

One player who City would have been disappointed by is striker, Erling Haaland, who couldn’t get past United defender Lisandro Martinez all game, continuing his barren run of goals, having not scored from open play since 20th December. Manager Pep Guardiola expressed his thoughts on this after the game as he said, “We were not good enough up front. We could not do it.”

He will be gutted City could not gain anything this weekend, as it keeps them 7 points below Arsenal, and level with Aston Villa, despite the North London side drawing to 17th place Nottingham Forest and the Birmingham side losing to Everton. Equally, Manchester United shouldn’t be too displeased with their 5th place, just 1 below 4th place Liverpool, especially after they have had so many draws recently against lower teams such as Wolves, Burnley and West Ham.

Both teams will look to gain more points this weekend, with varying degrees of difficulty, as United travel to the Emirates to take on top of the league Arsenal, whilst City welcome bottom of the league Wolves to the Etihad.