Pep Guardiola’s City eased past United 2-0 in a lopsided Premier League clash at Old Trafford on Saturday.
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The pressure is continuing to rise for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, as Manchester United suffered another demoralising defeat at home. This time, it was Manchester City’s turn to inflict pain on a hapless United side. Pep Guardiola’s City eased past United 2-0 in a lopsided Premier League clash at Old Trafford on Saturday. The defeat adds more pressure on Solskjaer, as the future of the Norwegian with the club is not clear. In their last home match in the league, Liverpool trounced United 5-0 – a scoreline that was heavily criticised by fans and pundits across the globe. The latest defeat against derby rivals City will only invite more pressure on the Norwegian’s shoulder.
The 186th Manchester dust-up was settled in the first half when Guardiola’s side scored twice. The Reds suffered an early setback after only six minutes when Eric Bailly turned the ball past David De Gea for an own-goal. Seconds before half-time, United suffered a massive blow when Bernardo Silva got behind a ball-watching Luke Shaw to sneak his effort on the correct side of David De Gea’s near post. United were lucky to go into the break with a 0-2 deficit, as the half was thoroughly dominated by the visitors. If not for De Gea’s heroics, a repeat of Liverpool’s scoreline could have well been on the cards.
Earlier, the first half-chance of the derby fell to the home side’s skipper Harry Maguire in the fifth minute, but his header from Luke Shaw’s free-kick flew wide. However, City’s domination in possession started to soon take shape, unnerving the majority of Old Trafford faithful. United struggled to deal with the pressure, as they fell behind when a Joao Cancelo’s low cross was turned in at the near post by Bailly. He desperately slid in to attempt to clear the danger in the seventh minute, but unfortunately, put it behind a helpless De Gea.
United struggled to get a hold of the ball in the opening period, but midway through the half, the supporters finally had something to get them out of their seats. Shaw’s low cross was sweetly volleyed with his left foot by Cristiano Ronaldo. But Ederson saved the shot and the rebound came out too quickly for Mason Greenwood to turn it in.
From there on, it was all about De Gea keeping United in the contest single-handedly. In a six-minute spell, the Spanish goalkeeper denied Gabriel Jesus, Cancelo twice, Kevin De Bruyne and also avoided a second own-goal when he reacted swiftly to a ball that came off Victor Lindelof.
Just when it looked like the home side had survived the threat to go into the break with a single goal deficit, a bad error in defence allowed City to double their lead. Cancelo’s deep cross to the far post was not dealt with by Shaw, as Bernardo turned the ball home via De Gea’s chest to double the visitors’ lead.
Solskjaer changed the system for the second half, as he abandoned the five-man defence by taking Bailly off to bring on Jadon Sancho. After 66 minutes, there was another change with Marcus Rashford replacing Greenwood. But the changes had little effect on the game. United struggled to impose themselves, as City kept the ball well to see out the remainder of the game. City now have 23 points from 11 games, while United have 17 from the same number of matches.
