Man City not at their best, but nor is blundering David de Gea, as Roy Keane slaughters Manchester United

De Gea

Man City not at their best, but nor is blundering David de Gea, as Roy Keane slaughters Manchester United

Manchester City once again moved a single, slender but hugely significant point ahead of Liverpool in the Premier League title race as they exposed the vast gulf between them and Manchester United. City have one hand on a trophy that simply seems a million miles from their near neighbours and they celebrated noisily.

Maybe Burnley on Sunday will provide a sterner test, maybe Leicester City a week on Monday might spring a surprise or Brighton, possibly still fighting for their lives on the final day, but with three games to go it feels like City are on the verge of being crowned champions.

This was their fixture in hand over Liverpool, this was supposed to be the big test, the one they had to overcome and, ultimately, it proved a bad night for the Reds; the Reds of Merseyside - but also of Manchester. When the second goal went in, it felt like the howls of frustration could be heard 30 miles away at Anfield.

The score-line was different from the 6-1 thrashing handed out to United by City at Old Trafford in 2011 but this felt equally, if not more, humiliating. City won the title then but United claimed it back the following campaign. But no-one will expect them to do that next year.

United had trained at their old training ground, The Cliff, during the day and in the second-half here they fell off a cliff as City stepped it up, and especially once they brought on Leroy Sane, and the home side had no response with the growing sense of bewilderment from their supporters. Most had left by the final whistle.

Contrast that to the thicket of City’s jubilant fans who gleefully ran through their repertoire of songs. “And now you are going to believe us, the wheels are falling off,” they sang and there were Oles for Ole as their team played keep ball and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer stood impotent on the touchline.

The United manager sent on his own substitutes – big-name, big-money signings in Alexis Sanchez, Romelu Lukaku and Anthony Martial – but they did nothing. Nothing at all. And so United slumped to a seventh defeat in nine games in all competitions with Sunday’s fixture at home to Chelsea probably deciding whether they have any chance at all of finishing in the top four.

City have far bigger prizes to capture and in gaining their 11th straight league win – that is an extraordinary run – they also claimed a victory here for the sixth time in their last eight visits which is also some record.

They scored two second-half goals which means they have reached a total of 157 in all competitions and no team has ever reached that tally in the history of English football. They were aided by United errors and not least from goalkeeper David De Gea who is having a torrid time and appears distracted.

The biggest indictment for United is that they put so much into the first-half just to stay in contention that they were spent early in the second period when City raised the tempo. They had pressed, they had played with intensity but they could not maintain it or, maybe, some players did not want to. They ran marginally more than City in the first-half and, remarkably, collectively 5km less in the second-half. That told its own story.

Pep Guardiola’s side were simply too good, too quick, too skilful, too clever and the manager corralled them all together at the end to applaud their raucous fans as Solskjaer made a solitary journey around the pitch to acknowledge the United waifs and strays.

To win we have to be ourselves, Guardiola said, and in the second-half City were that even if, before that, they looked nervous and were, briefly, knocked out of their stride by the pace and threat of Marcus Rashford and Jesse Lingard. In the television studios former United captain Roy Keane, working as a pundit, had spoken about there being too many United players who are “bluffers” but it was a buffer that Solskjaer constructed: five across the back and, as part of it, a surprising first start for Matteo Darmian since Jose Mourinho’s last game, the debacle away to Liverpool in mid-December.

Leroy Sane gives disjointed Manchester United stark reminder of mountainous task they face to catch up | @TelegraphDucker https://t.co/F3dUpMGwPt

— Telegraph Football (@TeleFootball) April 24, 2019
There were desperately few chances – Ederson did well to deny Rashford, Lingard volleyed wide while, for City, Sterling had two sights of goal but did not connect powerfully enough before De Gea beat out a Bernardo Silva shot.

Significantly Guardiola delivered a half-time message that made the difference: risk losing by trying to win. City certainly reacted but it was when they lost Fernandinho to injury, with Sane coming on, that they cut loose.

In theory it meant Bernardo dropping back. Whatever his position, he scored. Collecting the ball from Ilkay Gundogan he pushed it inside, across Luke Shaw who fatally backed off and shot early to deceive De Gea and beat him inside his near post. Could the goalkeeper have done better? It seemed so.

City poured forward again with Sane allowing a Bernardo cut back to run to Sergio Aguero whose first-time shot clipped the outside of the post. Just as it appeared United were being over-run they maybe should have scored as Kyle Walker inadvertently cleared straight to Rashford who crossed. Lingard was slow to react as Vincent Kompany failed to intervene and missed the ball completely.

It felt like a big moment. Instead City struck and there were more question marks over United players as Fred, who was woeful, again surrendered possession with a loose pass for Kompany to send Sterling running. He swept the ball left to Sane who shot but surely De Gea should have done better than allowing it to ricochet off his leg and into the net.

It felt a tough watch for Liverpool, who may cruelly finish on 97 points and not finish on top, as it confirmed City are on course to become the first club to retain the title since United did in 2009. It also confirmed that sixth-placed United are 25 points – and a world away – from them.

Source: telegraph