Just over a year after a jaw-dropping 6-3 triumph against Manchester United at the Etihad Stadium, Manchester City again regained the bragging rights with a fully dominant 3-0 win at Old Trafford.
In what felt like retribution for United snatching one back on them earlier in the year when they snatched a dramatic 2-1 win inside a riotous Theatre of Dreams, Pep Guardiola’s team ensured there was no repeat of that this time.
The reigning, defending triple winners went up to away turf and cleaned the floor with the opposition, all without ever fully shifting out of second gear.
Erling Haaland can be praised for that, as always.
City’s giant Norwegian freak scarcely broke a sweat as he scored twice and set up another to see his team glide to victory behind enemy lines, leaving United looking sillier and sillier with every passing minute.
A soft but fair penalty granted to City thanks to help from VAR saw Haaland fire them ahead from the spot after 26 minutes. After drawing a superb stop out of Andre Onana from a header before halftime, he tried the same trick after the break to further his 2-0 success.
The afternoon continued to get worse for Erik ten Hag’s side, who couldn’t get anywhere near their boisterous neighbours and, perhaps most worryingly, didn’t really look like they wanted to.
That allowed Haaland to eventually put the gloss on victory by squaring the ball from Onana’s recovered save for Phil Foden to fire in City’s third—all too comfortably.
“It looks easy, but it is not,” Guardiola said to reporters after the game. “I have a lot of respect for [Manchester] United, but we were at our best in the second half.”
“We are in the same direction: me, the CEO, the sporting directors, and the chairman. That is why I think the club is so stable.”
His statements underscore the startling comparison between how City are run compared to United, who are sliding into turmoil once again.
In honour of yet another dominant Derby victory, we’ve taken a look at 10 of the most ludicrous stats to come from the game.
10 incredible stats from Manchester City’s utterly dominant derby day
Erling Haaland has now scored 47 goals in 45 Premier League appearances.
Haaland (11) has scored the same number of goals as Manchester United (11) in the Premier League this season.
Erling Haaland has scored 20 more away goals in fewer appearances than any other Premier League player (23 games), via @OptaJoe.
Rasmus Hojlund has surrendered more penalties (1) than he has scored goals (0) in the Premier League this season.
Manchester United haven’t experienced five defeats in their first 10 top-flight league games since the 1986–87 season (6), via @StatsDufoot.
Guardiola’s City officially have more Premier League away wins at Old Trafford (9) than any other team.
Bernardo Silva has supplied more Premier League assists against Manchester United (5) than any other player since the start of the 2016–18 season. He joined in 2017–18.
Haaland has now scored more Manchester derby goals (4) than Cristiano Ronaldo (3).
Manchester United have now lost as many Premier League games at Old Trafford since Sir Alex Ferguson retired as they did during his 26 years at the club, via @footballontnt.
Since Pep Guardiola joined Manchester City in 2016, they have gained 145 more points than Manchester United (649 to 504), won 60 more games in the Premier League (205 to 145), and scored 229 more goals (681 to 452), via @OptaJoe.