Manchester City 1-0 Manchester Utd

Manchester United’s poor start to the 2007/2008 Premier League season went from bad to worse as they went down to a disappointing 1-0 to Manchester City at Eastlands. It’s United’s worst start to the season since 1992 and the worst ever start to a Premier League season by any defending champions.

The Manchester Derby followed a familiar pattern. As against Reading and Portsmouth, Man Utd dominated the match from the outset playing some great football, opening up the Blues defence at will. City barely crossed the halfway line in the first 30 minutes. Nani and Patrice Evra squandered several chances before Giovanni received the ball in Manchester City’s first meaningful attack. His shot from the edge of the area was deflected and flew into the corner of the net leaving Edwin Van Der Saar with no chance. The Brazilian was allowed space and time to run with the ball, Vidic did not close him down and then turned his back as the shot came in, the deflection off Vidic took the ball past the United keeper.

After the goal went in the Reds seemed to go into their shell, allowing City to get into the game. The Sir Alex Ferguson hairdryer must have been working overtime at the break. The second half saw United resume normal service as Vidic hit the bar with a header, and Tevez came close with a close-range chance near the end.

The matched ended with City victorious, but it was the most one-sided game I have seen in a while. Without seeming like a bitter Red, City were very lucky to finish with 3 points, they had their backs to the wall throughout.

United were missing Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo, but Owen Hargreaves was given his first competitive start allowing Paul Scholes and Michael Carrick the license to roam forward. Carlos Tevez looked threatening on his own up front but was often second-best to a towering defensive performance from City’s Micah Richards. Nani’s performance was erratic, some great flicks but he should have taken one of his early chances and didn’t do enough in possession. The same can be said of Ryan Giggs.

Manchester United are playing some attractive attacking football and dominating possession, but possession counts for nothing if we can’t put the ball in the net. With the quality players in the squad, the Reds will come good, but we need to turn it round pretty quick before Chelsea build up too much of a gap.