Manchester City will feel they have one hand on the title after beating their nearest rivals 2-1 on their own turf and moving 11 points clear at the top of the table.
David Silva opened the scoring against Manchester United at Old Trafford when he flicked in a scrappy goal from a corner. The opportunity came with Nicolas Otamendi putting pressure on Romelu Lukaku who could only divert it to the little Spaniard.
The visitors were on top and deservedly ahead but when Fabian Delph failed to deal with a ball across the box just before half time, Marcus Rashford was waiting at the back post to make him pay.
Manchester United will wish the stoppage didn’t come as it took all their momentum away. Things then got worse when a Lukaku clearance struck his team-mate and gifted Otamendi a goal soon after the restart.
Jose Mourinho’s side saw their best chance of an equaliser snuffled out thanks to a brilliant double save from Ederson.
Following the match, we’ve come up with a combined XI based on who impressed most in each position at Old Trafford. See who made the team below…
GK: David de Gea/Ederson: De Gea was the busier of the two goakeepers, facing six shots on target compared to five. Neither stopper could do much about the goals but Ederson gets in thanks to a brilliant double save late in the game to deny Lukaku.
LB: Ashley Young/Fabian Delph: Delph’s failure to deal with a ball across the box gave Rashford his chance to level the scores at 1-1. Young struggled to get forward with Walker coming the other way, but he did enough.
CB: Marcos Rojo/Nicolas Otamendi: Rojo managed to get himself booked and cut on the head all in the same incident. It saw him go off at half-time to be replaced by Victor Lindelof. Neither Rojo or his replacement did enough to earn a place, while Otamendi scored Man City’s second goal.
CB: Chris Smalling/Vincent Kompany: Kompany was replaced by Ilkay Gundogan at half-time, and with Smalling a strong presence at the heart of the Manchester United defence it’s the Englishman who gets the place in the XI.
RB: Antonio Valencia/Kyle Walker: Walker was booked early on which didn’t aid his job of keeping tabs on Rashford. Yet he still offered more than Valencia who hardly got forward at all.
MF: Nemanja Matic/Fernandinho: Fernandinho played some wonderful passes from deep in midfield and helped from a defensive view as well. That sort of praise is usually associated with Matic, but the ex-Chelsea man wasn’t at his best. He missed a few tackles and failed to command the game as he can.
MF: Ander Herrera/Kevin de Bruyne: Herrera was clearly up for this but his quality occasionally let him down. His histrionics at times were appalling. De Bruyne in contrast oozed the class he always does and was a key player in helping Man City dominate the match.
MF: Jesse Lingard/David Silva: Lingard should have come into the match buzzing after his double against Arsenal last weekend. However he struggled to get into the match in the first half before improving somewhat after the break. Meanwhile, Silva scored the opening goal with an instinctive, hooked finish.
FW: Marcus Rashford/Leroy Sane: Rashford pounced on his opportunity to level the score at 1-1 with a cool finish under Ederson. He was easily the most dangerous of Man Utd’s attackers. For those reasons he gets into the XI, although Sane was menacing himself.
FW: Anthony Martial/Raheem Sterling: Sterling looked the most likely avenue of a goal for Man City early on while Martial struggled to get into the match. Both faded in the second period.
FW: Romelu Lukaku/Gabriel Jesus: A blatant dive from Jesus could yet see him in trouble and he should have done much better after putting Rojo on his backside. But while Jesus was disappointing before he went off after an hour, Lukaku had a nightmare. The Manchester United striker played a key role in Man City’s two goals while labouring at the other end of the pitch. Both managers will have wished they played Sergio Aguero and Zlatan Ibrahimovic respectively.
Metro.co.uk’s combined XI…
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