Mourinho mixed things up for the second half, throwing on Marcus Rashford, Ander Herrera and later Anthony Martial and taking a more direct approach in search of an equalizer, but City still looked more unsafe on the counter-attack and De Bruyne almost restored the two-goal cushion when he ran onto Leroy Sane’s pass and shot against the inside of the post.
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Gary Neville claims Manchester United were “dismantled” by neighbours Manchester City in their 2-1 defeat in the Manchester derby clash at Old Trafford on 10 September.
Kevin De Bruyne opened the scoring via a knock down by Kelechi Iheanacho before the Nigerian scored into an empty net after De Bruyne’s effort hit the frame if the post.
Guardiola reacted by replacing Iheanacho for defensive midfielder Fernando, leaving City without an orthodox striker as the game became a frantic end-to-end encounter.
The Portuguese believes the pressure of the occasion got to some of his players, with United’s poor first-half display compounded by two penalty appeals being rejected after the break.
Every time Bravo received the ball after his error for the goal, United’s fans jeered and heckled the goalkeeper, who showed his personality by continuing to play the ball out from the back – a key reason why he was signed by Guardiola.
“We start the game with lots of players below their normal level”.
The kid [Marcus Rashford, who came on at half-time] looks like he is playing for the Under-18s against Salford City.
“I didn’t come here to see about the rivalry”, Guardiola said. I thought, because of the characteristics of the game, we could have hurt them with individuals, with some qualities. “It’s as simple as that”. We are three points off top and we want to be champions. City deserved it and looked convincing from the start.
For United, the main positive to take from this is the fact it’s only the fourth game of the season.
Liverpool has already beaten Arsenal and Leicester this season, and drawn at Tottenham.
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Ibrahimovic has beaten players ten years younger than him in training tests, and United are willing to keep him at the club past his 38th birthday as a result. Tottenham had it easy. Clear penalty so we were punished by that.
