Manchester City beat Manchester United in the Premier League 3-1 this Sunday and in doing so Pep Guardiola’s men have further reestablished their position at the top of the table.
The loss means that Manchester United are now 12 points behind their city rivals and Jose Mourinho’s hopes of mounting a title challenge are fading away very rapidly.
City cruised through most of the 90 minutes and with them 2-0 up, Pep Guardiola was hoping for a rather quiet evening. But that is when Ederson Moraes gave away a penalty and Anthony Martial put the ball in the back of the net to add some spice into the game.
But any hopes of a possible comeback from Manchester United was quickly squandered as substitute Ilkay Gundogan put the game to bed by scoring a third goal – four minutes before the game.
Gundogan found himself unmarked inside the opponent’s penalty box and made no mistake in putting the ball into the back of the net.
While everyone has been going ga-ga over Sergio Aguero’s thumping goal right after half-time but what many have failed to notice that Iikay Gundogan’s goal was a perfect example of Pep Guardiola’s famed philosophy.
There were 44 passes leading to the goal scored by Ilkay Gundogan which is the most scored by any player since September of 2015 when Juan Mata scored a goal for Manchester United vs Southampton.
Man United manager Jose Mourinho has blamed mental pressure for his team’s inability to perform.
The United boss told the club’s official website: Not a bad performance at all, far from it. One thing is a bad performance, another is a performance with mistakes. Ours was a performance with mistakes. All of the three goals were mistakes and we were punished for that.
We were in the game until the 80th minute or something, even the home supporters felt that, but the third mistake punished us with a result that I don’t think we deserve.
”There was a fantastic character from the team and a great effort by everybody. [Marouane] Fellaini shouldn’t play for 90 minutes because it was too much for him. He should be on the bench and come on later in the game. But he had to play because of Paul [Pogba]’s absence.
“So it was not an easy week for us but I just told the players they’re playing much better than before; we are much stronger, we are much more compact. Now we have to not let the defeat disappoint us.
“Sad, yes, but not too disappointed. In two weeks’ time we play at home against Crystal Palace and, from that game, we have to try to get the points.”
Read: Man United might have lost the Manchester Derby but Jose Mourinho is still the best in England.
Read: ‘This’ Premier League manager sets a unique record in the top five leagues of Europe.
Read: FIFA sends out warnings for the clubs wanting to play in the European Super League.
