It was Manchester City, but not as we knew them. Or so the theory went, anyway. But for Manchester United, it was just the City they remembered. In 2022, 2023 and 2024, they had been destroyed in a derby in which both Phil Foden and Erling Haaland scored. So, too, in 2025: there can be evidence of City’s decline in other games, in a league table that showed them in 16th at kick-off, but not in their latest demolition derby.
For United, history repeated itself. Second best in Manchester again, they were cut apart. For Ruben Amorim, there was a first glimpse of thousands of City fans turning their backs on the game to do the Poznan. If he could not see some of the United supporters, it was because the away end was emptying long before the final whistle. United conjured a late victory at the Etihad a month into Amorim’s reign. There was never a danger of a repeat.
