Sir Alex Ferguson said it was the “worst defeat” of his career and United fans are not used to seeing their side lose at Old Trafford, let alone be humiliated 6-1 by their “noisy neighbours”. Sure one must not get carried away by the score line, just like the 8-2 rout of Arsenal should be seen a one-off. But, City have moved five points clear at the top of table, while United’s unbeaten start – their best in a long time – has come to a crashing morale-sapping end. It is hard to criticize individual players when the team has been so completely outplayed, but Johnny Evans is one player who would never want to watch a replay of this match and will see himself moving down the pecking order of United’s talented by injury-prone backline.
Many doubt whether City had the team spirit to win titles, and these doubts would have been exacerbated when the darling of the blue half of Manchester “refused” to play while trailing against Bayern Munich. And with Mario Balotelli, another firecracker waiting to go off, Roberto Mancini needs all his experience to keep the team together. But, Sunday was Balotelli’s day, he scored two and as importantly was involved in the Evans’ sending off – and no one remembered the sulky Argentinian.
And the fact is Sheikh Mansour's riches mean that City, unlike any of their rivals, even the Russian fuelled blues of London, have the resources at their disposal to relegate a few bad apples and replace them with the very best in the business. Irrespective of whether Tevez plays for City again or not, City have a more talented Argentinian taking his first-team slot, Sergio Aguero. Even with Michel Platini’s “Financial Fair Play” coming into effect soon, City have shown they know to play the regulation games pretty well too with some “clever” or perhaps “questionable” deals.
With Chelsea to falling to defeat in the weekend, Daglish rebuilding Liverpool, and Arsenal having one of their worst seasons in a long time, the battle for the premiership may well be the battle of Manchester. Last year Fergie may have achieved his greatest target of overtaking Liverpool as the most successful club in English football, but this year his biggest challenge is to be the best team in Manchester. It is still early days in the season, and City have big tests coming – possibly more than United who have already played all their major rivals this season.
But on the evidence of what we have seen so far City have the resources and the team that can win their first premiership title and start a cycle of dominance. And so far none of the traditional “big four” have shown that they have the quality to stop the title moving from the red half of Manchester to the blue. Sir Alex and Man United have overcome far bigger odds, but right now United players and fans are feeling Blue, very Blue.
