Manchester, England – Kevin De Bruyne and Riyad Mahrez scored two goals each as Manchester City restored its lead at the top of the Premier League to six points with a convincing 4-1 derby victory over Manchester United at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday.
United put up a decent fight in the first half, going down just 2-1, but City’s quality showed after the interval with Ralf Rangnick’s side looking increasingly demoralized.
City has 69 points from 28 games with Liverpool on 63 with a game in hand. United sliped down to fifth place, a point behind Arsenal which beat Watford on Sunday and have three games in hand.
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola said his team’s display it remains as hungry as ever for success despite already having trophy-filled seasons under the Spanish coach.
“I said many times the biggest form of success for a manager is that after winning three Premier Leagues in the last four years we still run like we run and we are still there to win again,” he said.
“You can get confused and think like maybe you are what you are not. Still we are humble enough to do it again and again and be up there. After these guys have been there many years,” he added.
De Bruyne was outstanding, running the game from central midfield and then presenting himself as a threat in the box.
United was without Cristiano Ronaldo and Edinson Cavani due to injuries and Rangnick surprisingy opted to play Paul Pogba and Bruno Fernandes in forward positions.
City made the perfect start with De Bruyne putting his club ahead in the fifth minute by slotting home a low pulled-back pass from Bernardo Silva after they overloaded the left side.
United drew level through a superb curling shot from Jadon Sancho, who took his time and cut inside after a swift break before beating Ederson with his confident strike.
De Bruyne later restored City’s advantage, finding the target after Phil Foden powered into the area and saw his shot parried out by David De Gea.
City dominated after the break and made it 3-1 when De Bruyne struck a corner deep to the edge of the box and Mahrez met it with a first-time drive that took a slight deflection off Harry Maguire.
Mahrez completed the victory with a goal that was initially flagged as offside. VAR, however, found Alex Telles had played the Algerian onside before he latched on to an Ilkay Gundogan pass and blasted in off De Gea’s story.
“It was excellent from the first minute,” Guardiola said. “We played really well and had to be patient in the first step.”
“Football is emotions. It’s tactics, definitely, but it’s also emotions. Without the ball, we are a team with desire and passion to regain the ball from the first minute to the 90th,” he added.
Rangnick felt his tactics had been the right way to take on City before the gulf in class became evident.
“It was working,” he said. “For us it was clear if we want a chance to win the game we have to do a lot of running. You have to be in attacking and hunting mode and we did that in the first half. The third goal killed us off in the end.”
“It’s difficult, if we attack them very high there is a lot of negative running you need to do. The third goal is a brilliantly taken corner and it is almost impossible to defend that. The second half they were the better team and they showed the quality they have. We struggled especially after they scored the third one.”
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