Paul Scholes was in a club blazer and two seats to his left Tom Cleverley was in a United padded tracksuit jacket.
And in many ways therein lies the reason why the Reds rarely looked for any length of time like they’d be able to compete imaginatively with the Blues and stave off one of the most humiliating Old Trafford experiences in living memory.
United have for so long enjoyed the upperhand in this Manchester contest and that for more than a dozen years was in great part down to Scholes.
Nobody at City could touch him as a derby inspiration and few could even usurp him as a match-winning goalscorer. The Middleton-raised midfielder just loved to embarrass the neighbours. He was the scourge of the Blues.
Cleverley was chomping at the bit in pre-season to prove he’d learned enough at the feet of the master that he could ultimately fill his boots.
That task gained huge credence when the Academy product turned the Community Shield on its head in August.
With City 2-0 to the good at Wembley Cleverly came on as a half-time sub and engineered a thrilling comeback.
It gave the Reds hope that they had an ace up their sleeve capable of doing to the Blues what Scholes had previously done so damagingly and gloriously.
Thanks to Kevin Davies’ crude tackle at the Reebok Cleverley was still unable to take part and was possibly just a good training week away from this encounter having started back last Friday.
You couldn’t help put take a glance back and that midfield pair sat frustratingly in the South Stand.
Class
Without either’s glossy touch United lacked the innovative brush that David Silva brought to the derby canvass.
The Spaniard had been on United’s radar a few seasons back but the Reds never pursued their interest too keenly.
He had a hand in everything dangerous that came from City to put them in command.
As industrious as United’s engine room of Darren Fletcher and Anderson was it wasn’t until Jonny Evans’ red card that forced Wayne Rooney deep that the Reds looked to have someone who could unlock a resolute and powerful defence and midfield anchor area put out by Roberto Mancini.
Wouldn’t Silva have just suited being in a red shirt. United fans can only daydream about that prospect.
The magical Spaniard did in parts what Lionel Messi did to the Reds in the Champions League final at Wembley.
He was the source of City’s opener feeding Milner for Balotelli to sidefoot home and from then on he just kept popping up in space that United just couldn’t fill.
It already looked that even with the same numbers of players on the pitch United were going to toil miserably to keep the lid on Silva and Co.
When Evans ended up back in the dressing room a minute after he’d been sat their for the interval this looked effectively over as a contest.
Rooney’s deployment deep into engine room territory did revive some slight hope that United’s never-say-die spirit might eke something form a potential looming disaster.
But when Silva kept Anderson comfortably off his back in the 60th minute to open up space for Milner again and Balotelli finished off at the far post there was an ache in United’s fans stomach knowing there was something developing that is going to inflict bruising that will take a long time to repair.
City were by now walking through the Reds at will and at least Fletcher at 3-0 down might have deflected something of the criticism he might face on the social networks by curling in a quality goal.
The Glazer’s helicopters were probably airborne and heading for Wembley by the time the last four minutes of pain and trauma was inflicted on United.
No doubt the controversial owners must have been wondering what kind of cash they are going to have to pump into Old Trafford to catch City.
If it was a reluctance to fund a swoop for Wesley Sneijder in the summer maybe they might now understand why the Dutchman was so sought after by Reds followers.
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its not the glaziers fault, how can they be to blame were they in the line up ........... lets quit making excuses and face the facts fergie s team selection was wrong, is tactics were wrong, is failure to see that fletcher is useless and evans a disaster waiting to happen, is failure to play berba harnandez and vidic jones fergie has to shoulder the blame every week he is tinkering united are simply not as good as we would like to believe we are this is not a blip this is a decline thats been happening for some time. if you have a midfield that has no creativity no steel no skill no imagination then it is going to effect the defence and attack its the heart of the team its what makes things happen and if its weak the team will cough and splutter along until eventualy its torn apart chelsea went down to nine on field players but could of won the game, fergie has to address the midfield theres no one out there is no longer an excuse find someone at least two get your scouts out there and hunt them down ....you have no choice cleverly alone is not going to save us fletcher certainly wont and anderson cant do it alone, mean while we will watch city cake walk the title while fergie stubbornly refuses to do anything
When Evans ended up back in the dressing room a minute after he’d been sat 'their' for the interval this looked effectively over as a contest.
Come on. Let's get 'are' spelling 'wright'. lol Manc muppet
Got to congratulate City for winning in great style. But I'm ashamed to say that this was the worse exhibition of non-leadership I've ever seen from a Man united team. Anderson and Fletcher were terrible. They couldn't complete passes. Couldn't tackle. Couldn't run back to defend if their lives depended on it. Evans! Why he was even in the game is beyond me. I would never second guess SAF but I can't I can't understand why Vidic, Jones or Smalling weren't in the center spot. Evans just hasn't got a clue and based upon this performance, never will have. Evra is no Captain and he is a weak link this season. Young can't get it going because Evra is missing half the time. We need something special for right fullback instead of a center back. Rooney is killing himself and will burn out in the second half of the season if we don't get some dynamic midfielders. Please SAF, get us some midfielders who want to be here and can deliver week after week.
"Pride comes before a fall", and today we fell. I was behind the goal to watch City's embarrassing win that sent us down and today, though confined by the TV screen, thought that I was behind the same goal.
But the greater the defeat, the sweeter the victory............
Tottenham Hotspurs 4-1 Manchester United 1995/96 (won the league)
Southampton 6-3 Manchester United 1996/97 (won the league)
Newcastle United 5-0 Manchester United 1996/97 (won the league)
Chelsea 5-0 Manchester United 1999/00 (won the league)
Manchester United 1-4 Liverpool 2008/09 (won the league)
One game, one result, three points. 19 times champions, 3 times euro champs. Seen it before, come back before, thats why we are UNITED. Enjoy the day City you deserved it. The only benefit from this game is that we may get rid of those so called fans who constantly do nothing but moan, glass half empty types, who prey for disaster to feed their moronic hunger. We have been spoilt with sucess under Fergie, but unfortunately the great man will only ever be appreciated by some when he's gone and the good times are no more. To all true city fans well done, but beware of what comes with glory.
well the glazers cant pump any money in cos they dont have any, they bought the club on bank loans and expecy man u fans to pay it off for them
there using your money to pay of their other disastrous businesses in the US and are bleeding you dry
its a shame but all the plastic reds who used to support liverpool then you will soon be buying blue shirts
liverpool had their turn, you had yours now its our turn get used to it
Took you a long time to get the good bits, mind you we are all used to history talk on Utd, and now they have a bit more , don't forget this one.
1. We were defeated by Tottenharm 4-1, and we won the LEAGUE! 1995/96, 2. Defeated by Southmpton 6-3, and we won the LEAGUE! 1996/97, 3. Defeated by Newcastle United 5-0, and we won the LEAGUE! 1997/98, 4. Defeated by Chelsea 5-0, and we won the LEAGUE! 1999/00, 5. Defeated by Liverpool 1-4, and we won the LEAGUE! 2010/11, 6. Defeated by ciddy 1-6, AND WE WILL STILL WIN THIS SEASON PREMIER LEAGUE! COME MAY, "You lot have won the war not battle!
Spot on.
"Sat their," Stuart?
Please. Don't let a good tonking ruin your grammar.
Gotta see the funny side havent you fella's? hilarious.
This is a result a lot of United fans could see coming I am not saying the actual result but a good hiding which we should have got against chelsea norwich and liverpool,the one team you never wanna lose to is the arabs but yesterday it was a lesson which sadly Fergie wont do anything about.
The number of times I have told people how average and second rate ferdinand and evra are as defenders I have lost count and some of you come on here and " defend" them!!
the first goal daffy duck hoofs it out for a throwing when he had time to play it,eveans sending off daffys pathetic header in the air,the 4th goal a pathetic back pass which a schoolboy wouldnt even do and all the other goals from the right hand side of the attacking team which means the little french troublemaker was caught out coz he was too busy doing nothing by coming forward,you will all have a go at johnny evans but the truth is with these 2 pathetic useless clowns in the team we will concede more goals than ever,look at the big picture the 2 mouthpieces of the team are the 2 worse players in the team,yesterday nobody performed even when we pulled one back there was no urgency and as for anderson??he will never be good enough to wear a United shirt,sorry SAF for a few games now your team selection has left fans who know about the game scartching our heads,it hurts to call " United" players but I am afraid the 3 I mentioned never will be United players in my eyes,the REAL United fans have been through this before the weird thing for me is it didnt hurt as much as the 5-1 in 89 as I never saw that coming but yesterday we were mauled by arguably the best team in England you have to hold your hands up and sometimes good hidings like this find out the proper fans and the real players I will be at Aldershot on Wednesday and Everton on Saturday and United will always be my life but when you see (I cant even call them players) clowns who are too busy chirping tewweting and clubbing wearing the Red shirt it sticks in the throat and I feel sorry for the players who wear the shirt who know they have dross next to them our midfield is by far the poorest of all the top 6 clubs and its how we bounce back from this but this is the day that will hopefully be the wake up call and Sir Alex will realise there are too many average players in the team and we need to get shut,well done city make the most of it its still eraly days but I have a horrible feeling I saw the Champions yesterday and it wasn't us.
1 swallow doesn't make a summer, yes it was a very poor performance and city played extremely well and deserved the 3 points. but we still have 27 games to play with a lot of twist & turns still to happen.
It;s about time fergie played a settled back four for 2 consecutive matches as opposed to the 9 different centre back pairings he has fielded so far.
Lets not forget that since 2003 chelsea have spent over 1 billion and won the EPL 3 times to Utd's 5 times, if that is replicated by city i will still be a happy RED.
There are two groups fo people that are going to blow this humilating defeat out of proportions that is the journalists/pundits and our own United fans. Yes it was a humilating defeat and yes we played horrible is the only word to describe it but it only one game and it October. City played great but we just did not asked any questions of them all game then the madness of the sending off and the game was done. Let's be clear here we cannot hide behind Evans's red card because what transpired after that was not United football.
Void of leadership and gamesmanship we shipped in 5 goals with some very naive defending. If you have watch United long enough you know that once or twice a year we play one of these games where we look utterly clueless. This was one of them. I feel nothing more than when we got beat 4-1 at home by Liverpool a couple of years ago. This game does ask questions of the preparation for the game and how our defensive footing has completely gone. The backbone of the team is in shambles partly because of injuries and partly because guys are not doing their job. Goals 4, 5 and 6 were due to naivity and a lack of leadership so I understand when we question our players and the coaching staff. We want somebody to blame when in reality we already know the answer.
I read so many negative post yesterday that I just shut it down and reflected on the game. SAF is not the problem. Why? Because he will always do things his way and having confidence in his players has always been one of his strengths. None of us would have picked Evans but SAF continuelly picks the young man. Even if we spent gobs of money it would not have changed yesterday's disaster. You cannot plan for how your team or players are going to react on the day. We can ask questions though on the defensive setup and the glaring attempts teams have on goal against us. We are a team that cannot keep teams at bay and we cannot keep the ball which mean we are in trouble of late. We can question when we lose the ball why we are not busting a gut to get it back. Cleverly or the latest midfielder wanted by people won't solve that. We use to be sound defensively and now we are all over the place.
We must not pannick or go over board in our reaction but we must fix the spine of the team. I don't understand the tendency to blame Rio for every thing now as if he was at fault for the goals scored or Evans sending off or our inability to sustain an attack through our passing. Critique the team that is our right and we must always ask questions but I cannot see this defeat as the end of the world as some of you. Every season we have one of these games and the world come to a stop for most but to me this one is no different. I understand it is City but so what get over it. They are going to be in the mix from now on similar to Cheleas so it cannot be a drama if we lose to them. We should worry about United and fix the spine of this team.
Its a result Manchster United deserve, ive never seen such arrogance over the years belittlling clubs less fortunate than they were, the banner said it all, no respect.
Manchester City showed you no respect yesterday on the field, for us that was a practise match, a knockabout you know a game in the park.
What are the excuses now, Referee, managers selection, you couldnt see each other?
I predicted a whitewash was on the cards last week if Utd play like they have been doing but dont worry your little selves we will tonk a few more this season including you again!
Never mind Matty - you could always become a City fan again!..
Two midfielders needed , Carrick, Evans , Gibson shown the door and Rio to be used against lesser teams he isnt up to it anymore , Vidic and Cleverly must start at Everton and SAF has to get it out of his head that they are not match fit what they hell is training for ?? and how do they get match fit if they dont play ?, our Manager is starting to worry me with his comments such as Carrick doesnt get going till October ??? and United dont get going till January ahhh well that's ok then we can all laugh yesterday's result off then can't we because in January we are going to steamroller everyone according to SAF ohhh wait though it's almost the end of October and Carrick still has got going .
once again wrong team selection and formation. with the personell weve got in central midfield we simply cannot play 2 centre fowards and 2 old style attacking wingers against top opposition. we had a young keeper a centre half at right back,a centre half with a bad back, a centre half of not sufficient quality[wrongly selected] and a burnt out left back , what protection are they offered in this formation?felt sorry for fletcher yesterday he must have felt he was fighting a one man battle in the middle. mike phelan worst number 2 in the prem. said it before but hope wigan go down and we get martinez.simply tactically rudderless.not acceptable.
The United midfield was pitiful. Why do we persist with Anderson who has never cut the mustard at OT? Of course, not replacing Scholes is a dereliction of duty by the United management and the on-off-on-off saga with Sneijder during the summer shows just how indecisive United can be in the transfer department. It is said above that United were interested in Silval a while back so why was the interest not pursued? The only two players that can hold their heads up from yesterday's debacle are Smalling and Rooney. Evans was woeful as was Rio and Evra while Nani didn't turn up and Fletcher gave the ball away upteen times. The adage that you get what you pay for rang loud and clear yesterday.
It's an issue fo what do we do next? First thing - bring back Vidic not Ferdinand. I wish we had a choice for Evra as he is poor.... Also, definitely bring back Berba immediately and to midfield position.
At least after yesterday's effort, if anyone was left in any doubt about J Evans credentials as Utd defender, the situation is clear.
I don't want to make him the scapegoat for yesterday's defeat, as there were at least another 6-7 culprits but has anyone who has watched Utd consistantly over the last couple years seen him have a good game? He is lacking in so many areas, everytime his name appears on the teamsheet is just a mystery of what SAF see's that no one else can. I'm aleady hopefull that for next 3 games we can't defend as poorly because Evans would be suspended.
LBH if he were to leave Utd, which prem league side do you see him ending up at......? My point exactly, he never has been and never will be of the quality to play at the highest level.
Where are the comments from Danny of Wilmslow? You would have thought he would have been all wound up slamming SAF and all the players he hates. Ymmm! ......... For just this once he may have got it right!
Stu said
"The Glazer’s helicopters were probably airborne and heading for Wembley by the time the last four minutes of pain and trauma was inflicted on United.
No doubt the controversial owners must have been wondering what kind of cash they are going to have to pump into Old Trafford to catch City."
They don't have the cash. The type of cash is only in their dreams. My problem is not the defeat which I saw coming when SAF did not buy Nasri who wanted to come here.
Are my fellow Mancunians going to stand by in silence while SAF gets a super fat salary fiddling away while the club burns down. Or are you going to just change to a blue shirt like = Des Piselerouges (24/10/2011 at 09:07) is advocating. I don't mean that my fellow reds.
Stu will be aware I tweeted to him that Evans was just backing off and not putting in and tackles. To my horror I found even Rio and Evra were missing.
Sir Alex did not move a muscle, like he he knew what was going to happen. He had set the stage. Actually something must have happened when Vida and Javier and Berba realised they were not in the first eleven. The Glazers have re-signed Javier, at least that is smart financial thinking. What are we going to do when they are offered three times their salary elsewhere. I expect the three above as well as Rooney and Nani to put in transfer requests.
I realise the Glazers don't know their football that you have to keep spending to stay a force, or they would have funded Nasri's purchase.
That is if SAF had explained that it was imperative the club spend that money, this is the time to bring back Becks as head of football and get yourself a new manager.
We just don't have the finances to replace Rio and Evans. We have sold Wes. Even Shea might have done a better job. The Prime Minister of Malaysia threw a large party so that he and another 200 United fans could watch United beat City. Imagine their chagrin at the score-line. ESPN covered the event at his official residence. All this even though QPR is Malaysian owned. It is this incredible fan base that City's owner will destroy.
Do you think Singapore became a developed economic power by not using their brains. This share offer is going to bomb in grand style, their United fans are very astute.
Fletcher has given a ridiculous interview in the Mirror. This man is an enemy within. He is a SAF henchman. We need United men. His goal means nothing to me when a star like Berba is on the bench. I think we were undone by our owners and manager.
I feel lousy for Chris Smalling who played like a champion. Once again we can't use Smalling and Evra to help with our forays when the midfield is trying to plug holes in the defence.
Sitting on our hands is not going to rectify anything.
Free Red has stopped posting on this site due to the ridicule he had to face. I can bet he is hurting a lot more than the so called fans who put money in the owner's pocket.
Need Cleverly back and another play making midfielder in the transfer window.