IT is just over 11 years since Wayne Rooney scored one of the great Manchester derby goals to paint the city red.
Rooney’s spectacular overhead kick is still shown regularly on TV and will no doubt be screened on repeat before today’s 187th meeting of City and United.
But in the aftermath of that 2-1 victory at Old Trafford on February 12, 2011, City legend Mike Summerbee issued a warning about what was to come when he told Sky Sports viewers there would be a shift of power.
Former United striker Dwight Yorke – sharing the studio with Summerbee and regular pundit Jamie Redknapp that day – could hardly contain his mirth as the man now employed as a City ambassador promised: “We will come here one day and take them apart.”
No one laughs at Summerbee now.
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Eight months after his warning, the Blues returned to hammer United 6-1 – the most chastening defeat of Sir Alex Ferguson’s reign.
It was a seismic victory, which provided the springboard for Roberto Mancini’s side to beat their rivals to the Premier League title on goal difference – scoring four more goals than United that season and conceding four fewer.
It was a taste of things to come.
Since being slain by that Rooney wonder goal, City have played 418 league games – the equivalent of exactly 11 full Premier League seasons.
United have played one game more.
Yet the Blues have amassed a staggering 125 more points than their rivals during that time.
City have won 929 points to United’s 804, which is a bit more than equal to winning 42 more games.
City have scored 962 PL goals – an astonishing 221 more than United over the same period. being checked
And they have conceded just 361 goals compared to the Reds’ 428. City are now looking to win their fourth title in five seasons and their seventh in a decade.
Add to the mix, six League Cup wins, two FA Cup triumphs and 11 successive seasons of playing Champions League football and it is fair to say that Summerbee’s prediction has come to pass.
The gap between the two clubs has certainly been bigger at points in history than it is now.
When United clinched a unique Treble of Premier League, Champions League and FA Cup in 1999, City were in the third tier of English football and in need of a play-off miracle against Gillingham to return to what is now the Championship.
But City fans have never had it so good. What wasn’t so glaringly obvious when Summerbee spoke out 11 years ago was the spectacular fall from grace that his club’s rivals would suffer.
United duly clinched their 12th Premier League title after that victory in that 2011 derby clash.
Later that season they would appear in their third Champions League final in four seasons, losing for a second time to Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona.
Ferguson had ‘knocked Liverpool off their perch’ – and he would reclaim the title from City and make United champions of England for a 20th time two years later, before his retirement.
But since then…
City have spent more money in the transfer market – £1.363billion since 2013 – but they are getting more bang for their buck too.
United’s £1.157bn investment in new players since Ferguson moved into the boardroom has brought nothing much more than two second-placed finishes.
They have also burned through four managers.
And, although Louis van Gaal lifted the FA Cup in 2016 and Jose Mourinho claimed a League Cup and Europa League double the following year, they have failed to finish in the top four in four of the last eight PL seasons.
Interim boss Ralf Rangnick faces a run-in that pits his team against City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal, Tottenham and Leicester.
Those games will decide which European competition United will compete in next season – unless Rangnick can produce a miracle by winning the Champions League.
So today’s derby is huge for both clubs, but for very different reasons – City will hope to keep Liverpool at arm’s length at the top of the table; United to keep Thursday nights free next season.
