Erling Haaland’s double helped Manchester City secure derby day delight as lifeless rivals Manchester United were outclassed in an embarrassing home defeat.

The eyes of the footballing world were on Old Trafford as the neighbours met in the 191st Manchester derby and first since Pep Guardiola’s men matched their 1999 treble triumph.

Haaland scored a spot-kick and unmarked header before playing in Phil Foden to wrap up 3-0 victory, yet City’s dominance was far greater than the scoreline suggests.

It was an abrupt end to an unconvincing three-match winning run in all competitions for Erik ten Hag’s United, who have now lost five of their 10 opening Premier League games.

Had this not been at a grand but crumbling Old Trafford, and bedecked in all the regalia of what is supposed to be one of the Premier League’s biggest games, most watching on would have fairly dismissed it as another routine Manchester City win over some mid-table side way below them.

Instead, this 3-0 defeat at home will send Manchester United back into crisis, and provoke even more questions about Erik ten Hag.

There is a growing sense he is struggling to come up with answers. Mitigating circumstances only go so far when United have just offered up City’s second-easiest win of the season, in what is supposed to be the fixture that means the most. Only Fulham were beaten by more, but it still felt like they put up more of a fight. So did relative European minnows in the modern game such as Red Star Belgrade and Young Boys Bern. They only lost 3-1 to the European champions.

How United would have valued even the reprieve of the goal here. City were simply so much better than them without even needing to be that good.

There was a time when Manchester City won at Old Trafford and it was Jonny Evans’ fault. This wasn’t it; not really, not when he was a cause of defeat but, more than anything, a symptom of Manchester United’s malaise. A decade into life after Sir Alex Ferguson, with well over £1bn spent, with more than £400m going on new players in Erik ten Hag’s reign, the man challenged with stopping Erling Haaland was Evans, the final throwback to Ferguson’s era.

Haaland escaped him and eluded him. Evans left him utterly unmarked to head in Bernardo Silva’s cross for his second goal, even if the mitigating factor was the presence of Rodri; he wandered off to police the Champions League final scorer instead. Evans left him again when Haaland set up Phil Foden for City’s third; when Andre Onana parried Rodri’s shot, Evans was caught dozing, the striker speeding past him to tee up the Mancunian.

Nor was Evans near Haaland when Onana made a brilliant save from the Norwegian on the stroke of half-time. When the forward darted in behind an altogether slower defender, the goalkeeper turned rescuer, clawing away a shot. Haaland was rampant. It was only Onana, with perhaps his best performance in a United shirt, who denied him a second derby hat-trick. And yet it was all eminently predictable. It was an unfair contest; but then it was always going to be. Evans did as well as could be expected, which is to say not very.

Erling Haaland scored twice as Manchester City thrashed Manchester United 3-0 at Old Trafford in the first Manchester derby of the season in the Premier League.

Haaland opened the scoring from the penalty spot after Rasmus Hojlund grabbed a hold of Rodri in the box, and it was only goalkeeper Andre Onana who prevented City taking a bigger lead into the break.

Haaland was denied by Onana at the back post but the Norwegian made no mistake in the second half as the excellent Bernardo Silva set up his 11th Premier League goal of the season.

Haaland had a chance to complete his hat-trick, but chose to set up Phil Foden to add City’s third. There were boos at full-time after United’s latest poor display, while Bruno Fernandes and Antony were booked for petulant tackles near the end.

Manchester United’s abject performance in the derby defeat to Manchester City left former players Roy Keane and Gary Neville offering a damning assessment of the current state of the club, with players and hierarchy alike coming in for criticism.

However, manager Erik ten Hag largely appears in favour with the ex-Old Trafford stars, despite overseeing a start to the Premier League campaign which has tallied five defeats in ten matches, leaving the Red Devils eighth in the table and and 11 points behind leaders Tottenham Hotspur, past the quarter mark of the campaign.

Keane offered the most immediate and radical propsed solution to the latest crisis at the club, suggesting that Bruno Fernandes should have the captaincy removed from him - despite only being officially appointed to the position in July after Harry Maguire was demoted from it.

“The first thing I’d do, I would definitely take the captaincy off him, one hundred per cent. I know it’s a big decision but Fernandes is not captain material,” he said. “A talented player no doubt, but after watching him again today, we’ve discussed this before.

“His whinging, moaning, throwing his arms up constantly - it’s really not acceptable.”

Source: Yahoo News

BDST: 1150 HRS, OCT 30, 2023 
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