With a few minutes to go and the victory secure, thousands of Manchester City fans momentarily turned their backs to jig up and down in a joyous Poznan celebration. It was an occasion when they had once again laid bare the chasm that has opened up between themselves and United and they were going to enjoy it.
United were better than they had been in that hideous loss to their neighbours at Old Trafford last November – the one that was pretty much the final straw for Ole Gunnar Solskjær. They had a few flickers in the first half here and scored a nice goal to equalise at 1-1 through Jadon Sancho.
But City are simply on another level. In what was Ralf Rangnick’s first Premier League game against opposition from the so-called big six, City led 2-1 at half-time – both goals coming from the superlative Kevin De Bruyne – and the hard truth was that it could have been more.
With Harry Maguire suffering more than anybody in a United defence that was loose and open for most of the game, City did make it worse during a dominant second-half performance.
Riyad Mahrez fired home a wonderful half-volley from a De Bruyne corner for 3-1 – the ball flicking in off the hapless Maguire – and, with the City support in carnival mood, there would be a late bonus. The substitute Ilkay Gündogan played in Mahrez, who looked offside but nevertheless blasted past David de Gea. When the VAR lines came out, it turned out that Mahrez was level.
City had needed to respond to Liverpool’s win over West Ham and also their own home loss to Spurs and the sense that they were a little fortunate to win at Everton. How they did so. With 16 wins and one draw in 18 league matches, it has to be a frustration for Pep Guardiola that his team is not already clear of Liverpool. It is a testament to the form of the chasers.
United, meanwhile, slip to fifth – below Arsenal – and a failure to secure Champions League qualification would not only put the tin lid on a season of frustration, it would severely affect the budget for the next one.
At times such as these, it is easy to see City as the club with the stability and the clarity, with the collective identity as they chase a fourth title in six seasons under Guardiola, and United as everything but.
It is United’s ninth season since the retirement of Sir Alex Ferguson without a championship challenge and, during the period, they have won only three major trophies to City’s 11. All while spending more than £1bn on signings.
Rangnick was bold with his approach at a ground where United have done well in recent times – they had won on five of their previous seven visits in all competitions. He might have been expected to adopt a low block and try to counter at pace but, in the absence of the injured Cristiano Ronaldo, he started with Paul Pogba and Bruno Fernandes as false 9s and asked the wingers, Anthony Elanga and Sancho, to push up.
The German coach wanted to engage City higher up and his team were in the game in the first half, mainly because they looked as though they could make something happen in the final third. But they left spaces and City flooded into them – De Bruyne, in particular. The home team also won the ball many times in dangerous areas to spark quick transitions.
United’s goal was a classic counterattack, started by Aaron Wan-Bissaka and involving all four of their attacking players. Sancho, the former City winger, finished it with a lovely curling shot into the far corner.
They had seen Fred almost trick through in the ninth minute while Sancho blazed a clear chance high before the interval.
City, though, could point to plenty more in the first half – on top of De Bruyne’s goals. Mahrez jinked inside from the right and drew an excellent save out of De Gea; De Bruyne twice went close and Phil Foden had three moments. He was denied by Maguire following a bit of wrestling – crying in vain for a penalty – while he looped a header off the crossbar and dragged wide after a De Bruyne break.
De Bruyne’s early opener was soft from a United point of view; Bernardo Silva allowed to pull back and the Belgian arriving under an apparent cloak of darkness.
The goal for 2-1 saw Foden beat Victor Lindelöf and work De Gea before Silva’s effort on the rebound broke off two United players to sit up for De Bruyne.
City turned the screw in the second half, a moment to sum up the difference coming when Maguire was booked for a lunge on the breaking De Bruyne that appeared to start in a different time zone.
There was a crushing inevitability about how Mahrez’s shot for the third brushed in off Maguire, although the technique from the edge of the area was beautiful, and United disappeared without trace thereafter. Mahrez shot too near to De Gea, João Cancelo went close with a scissors kick and both Mahrez and Gündogan could not finish in the same move. The last word would go to Mahrez.
