Perhaps Manchester City was wobbling. Perhaps, given Manchester United had lost only one of its last seven games at the Etihad, this wouldn’t be a repeat of United’s limp defeat in the reverse fixture at Old Trafford. Perhaps this was an opportunity for United to strike a blow in the battle for fourth. Perhaps there was a danger that City would lose ground in the title race. Perhaps, perhaps. United probably was better here than in November, but it was still comprehensively outplayed in the 4–1 loss.
The thing Ole Gunnar Solskjær had always been good at was sitting his side deep against teams who sought to dominate possession, then striking on the break. His capacity to do that had been compromised by the arrival of Cristiano Ronaldo, the demand to play him meant United lacked the pace and fluidity to play in that way. With Ronaldo absent, Ralf Rangnick’s set up was very different, and in part conditioned by the loss of Ronaldo. This was a curious sort of 4-2-4 with Anthony Elanga and Jadon Sancho wide and Paul Pogba and Bruno Fernandes as a pair of unconventional center forwards.
And there were times when it worked, most notably when an interchange between the four led to Jadon Sancho, the one player who has clearly improved under Rangnick, calmly tucking a curler into the bottom corner to equalize after 22 minutes.
