The bragging rights went the way of City after a pulsating 2-1 win at Old Trafford on Saturday lunchtime in the first derby of the season.
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“Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho hails Ander Herrera for showing a ‘phenomenal attitude” in the second half of Saturday’s Manchester derby.
City tore into United in a blistering opening 40 minutes and were deservedly 2-0 ahead with goals from Kevin De Bruyne and Kelechi Iheanacho.
On Tuesday, City host Borussia Monchengladbach in the Champions League as they kick off Group C, which also features Barcelona, with whom Guardiola won the competition twice as their coach. While it might be expected that a Guardiola side would dominate possession by a factor of 60 per cent to 40 and out pass their opponents 593 to 376, it was their ability to translate this control of the ball into chances that was impressive.
“I thought about many other options – but I thought in the beginning to show to my players that I came to win the game”.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic has been prolific if a little stodgy in his movement so far and Mourinho suggested he may even choose to play both strikers through the centre in future.
Their opponents’ defending clearly complicated matters for them.
The teenage sensation has been used sparingly off the bench so far by new manager Jose Mourinho, but followed up his late victor at Hull last month with an impressive performance as a second-half substitute in the Manchester derby.
The result keeps City top of the league on 12 points after four games, while United remain in third place. “But maybe now for the next big game I know who will be able to cope with the pressure”.
“But we have had a little bit of a problem in the last few games with the last pass – we make the movements, but the last pass.especially in the second half when Manchester United pushed a lot”. We had many counter-attacks.
De Bruyne’s opener came directly from a Bailly mistake, with the defender losing an aerial duel to Iheanacho, before the Belgian fired past David de Gea.
He said: “We are happy”.
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“In the first half they were much better than us”.
