Manchester United ended Manchester City’s 21-game series of wins with a splendidly executed 2-0 victory at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday.
A Bruno Fernandes goal and an rare strike from defender Luke Shaw were sufficient to hand Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side a certainty boosting win in the derby.
Coming into the Premier League match, City hadn’t lost altogether rivalries since November 21 and was confronting an Untied side shy of structure dependent on recent performances.
Be that as it may, it took the guests only 101 seconds to start to lead the pack through Fernandes’ spot-kick, the talisman’s 16th league goal of the season. What’s more, United was meriting each of the three focuses.
In spite of the loss, City stays 11 focuses clear at the highest point of table, yet the outcome will do ponders for United’s expectations of securing second place.
“We lost and that will be the news, but the [real] news is 21 victories in a row. This is the news,” Pep Guardiola told Sky Sports after the match. “This result is going to help us a lot to understand how difficult it is.”
“There is still a lot of games to play […] we have to start winning again and next game we have an opportunity to do it,” Guardiola said.
‘The league is not a sprint’
City hadn’t followed in the Premier League for 20 matches, so nobody might have expected United’s perfect start.
The hosts could have no bad things to say with the punishment choice either, with Anthony Martial being awkwardly stumbled by Gabriel Jesus.
Fernandes stepped up to press his punishment past City attendant Ederson, who may have improved to keep it out subsequent to getting a solid hand behind the exertion.
The poor beginning appeared to shake City as United’s advances amassed together to squeeze high up the pitch.
Luke Shaw might have effectively multiplied his side’s lead minutes after the fact yet he hauled his shot directly at Ederson after the ball broke for him in the case.
Subsequent to enduring the early scare with only one objective surrendered, City started to settle as the match fell into the normal example.
Guardiola’s side began overwhelming belonging with United pausing for a minute and attempting to get its savage opponents on the break, an arrangement that worked for Solskjaer not long after the break.
Dean Henderson, filling in for ordinary starting goalkeeper David de Gea, dispatched a pinpoint toss to Shaw, who stepped to the edge of City’s case. A speedy one-two with Marcus Rashford gave the English full-delete to twofold United’s lead.
The second goal seemed to take the stuffing out of City as Untied overwhelmed. Military ought to have made it 3-0 after the Frenchman cushioned a basic one-on-one against Ederson.
United, which has now gone 22 away group games unbeaten, figured out how to clutch its perfect sheet notwithstanding a late spell of serious pressing factor.
“The league is not a sprint because if it was a sprint, we [would have lost] straight away in the beginning of the season because we lost two games,” Fernandes told Sky Sports after the match.
“It’s a marathon. There is a lot of games to go ahead now. We have to do our best, and don’t think about others, think just about us and winning our games.”
Liverpool in crisis
Somewhere else in the Premier League, Liverpool tumbled to a 6th back to back home loss at Anfield because of Fulham.
The defending champ looked bereft of certainty as its assignment compromised adversaries clutched a merited 1-0 win.
Jurgen Klopp had rolled out seven changes to the firing line-up with an end goal to spruce up the crew, yet he saw the very issues that have tormented his side since the turn of the year.
The goal came from another pass in fixation as Mario Lemina picked the pocket of a lazy Mohamed Salah on the edge of Liverpool’s container prior to discharging his shot into the edge of the net.
The innocuous hosts, which stay seventh in the table, couldn’t recuperate but then again looked incoherent and gruff in assault.
“We never had a momentum in the season, really, in the Premier League at least. You can see that,” Klopp told Sky Sports after the match.
“It’s still in the boys, they still have it all, but in the moment can’t show it,” Klopp said. “It would be a masterpiece to find out how we change that overnight.”