Vincent Kompany gave Manchester City the victory on Monday
evening when he soared above the Manchester United defense to head home the
game’s only goal. It was a tight, hard
fought match between the cross town rivals, but City looked firmly in control
throughout the match. As it stands,
Manchester City now lead Manchester United in the race for the Premier League
title thanks to an 8 goal lead in goal differential. This deadlock at the top means that the title
will be decided over the next two weeks of fixtures that has Manchester City
facing Newcastle United and Queens Park Rangers, while Manchester United will
face Swansea and Sunderland.
United appeared to take a conservative tactical approach to
this match and excluded several younger members of from the starting lineup in
favor of the aging yet talented midfield trio of Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs, and Park
Ji-Sung. Sir Alex Ferguson’s decision to
go with experience over the youthful talents of Valencia, Young, and Welbeck
may have worked against him, as Manchester City thoroughly dominated the
midfield for much of the game thanks to the tireless work of Yaya Toure and
Gareth Barry anchoring the midfield. For
long periods of the match, Premier League leading scorer Wayne Rooney was
lacking support in attack, and it showed on the stat sheet, with Manchester
United failing to register a shot on target during the match.
After an early yellow card from Vincent Kompany, the first
half settled into a relatively tame affair given the circumstances, with both
teams attempting to poke and prod their way through the opposing defense. Sergio Aguero was relentless in his attempts
running at and around the United defense, but his finishing touch was lacking,
and he was denied repeated chances to earn a goal in six consecutive
games. City’s repeated attacking efforts
were rewarded just before half time when they earned a pair of corner
kicks. David Silva’s second corner found
Vincent Kompany who rose above the United defense to head home the deciding
goal. As the captain Kompany celebrated
jubilantly, the Ethiad Stadium erupted with applause that United would have to
wait until after the break to silence.
After being sent out of the changing room quite early by Sir
Alex Ferguson, United responded by having several scoring opportunities
thwarted by City’s defense. The ensuing corners came to nothing for United and
it began to look as if United would not take away anything from this match, as
a result they turned up the pressure.
Rooney and Nani began piling the pressure on Manchester City and the
introduction of Danny Welbeck for Park Ji-Sung gave United a new attacking
option that they quickly utilized.
United appeared to be in the ascendency before the
introduction of Nigel de Jong for Carlos Tevez.
The Dutchman’s introduction brought the beginning of a new period of the
game, because just two minutes later Phil Jones was booked for bringing down
Gareth Barry. This was the first in a string
of incidents that would climax with both managers exchanging words along the
technical area and having to be separated by their assistants.
Just after Jones’ yellow card, Yaya Toure and Paul Scholes
appeared to exchange words and Toure called for Scholes to be booked, but play
resumed without incident. De Jong made
an impact with his trademark devastating style with a tackle from behind on
Danny Welbeck. This incident was the
spark that caused the managers to come together and conclude with Roberto
Mancini’s pantomiming as the two were separated. Just after the incident, Sergio Aguero nearly
put the game out of reach, but only found side netting. The dirty play would conclude with Michael
Carrick receiving a yellow card for a late tackle on Gareth Barry and play
carried on. Valencia was introduced for
Scholes just before Yaya Toure almost found the net with a left footed effort
that hit the stanchion behind the goal.
Micah Richards replaced David Silva for City while Ashley
Young took over for Nani as the managers exchanged their tactical jabs for the
final ten minutes. City enjoyed a pair
of opportunities in the final 5 minutes of regulation, but Clichy’s shot from
the edge of the area was stopped by De Gea.
Samir Nasri made an excellent run beating two defenders, but when the
time came to shoot he could not pull the trigger and was dispossessed. Five additional minutes were added to the
match and the referees signaled for a final City substitution, James Milner was
introduced for the gun-shy Nasri. Over
the last several minutes, United enjoyed a couple half chances and a corner
that was scrambled away by Joe Hart as he was fouled.
When the final whistle blew, the Ethiad immediately exploded into applause and “Blue Moon” could be heard echoing throughout the
stadium. As it currently stands, City
are in the driver’s seat for the final two fixtures and two wins will likely
ensure their place in history as Premier League champions. However, with a difficult upcoming test
against Newcastle, their fate has not been sealed.
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