In Derby without drama, City win a laugher

A double from Kevin De Bruyne. A double from Riyad Mahrez. The double completed by City over United in this season’s Manchester derbies. Just further confirmation of the divergent paths these one-time rivals are on in the Premier League.

The 4-1 victory on Sunday restored City’s six-point lead over Liverpool in its quest to defend the title and pick up the trophy for a sixth time in a decade. And where is United? Languishing 22 points behind City and now no longer even in the fourth and final Champions League place.

“They showed what kind of top quality team they have,” United interim manager Ralf Rangnick said. It was being outclassed at home and losing 2-0 to City in the derby in November that precipitated the firing of Ole Gunnar Solskjær.

The final blow was losing to Watford — the team that was beaten 3-2 in Sunday’s other game that allowed Arsenal to dislodge United from fourth. “I didn’t actually expect Arsenal to lose at Watford,” Rangnick said.

“So for us it’s clear, if we still want to have a chance to finish fourth at the end of the season, we can almost not drop any more points, and we also know that in those 10 games that we have to play, there are a few other difficult ones so let’s take it game by game.

“For us, it’s important we keep developing the team, which we did in the last couple of months.” But United has been a work in progress since Alex Ferguson retired back in 2013 after the last Premier League title win.

Sunday’s game produced only City’s second home derby win in the league in seven attempts. But while United and City both have a net spend of around $1 billion on transfers in the last decade, the blue half of Manchester is the team regularly collecting trophies.

United is enduring a fiveyear title drought since the 2017 Europa League triumph that can only be ended by winning the Champions League this season. (Agencies)