Manchester United shattered bookmakers with derby day triumph

Manchester United shattered bookmakers with derby day triumph over Manchester City at the Etihad stadium

 

Luke Shaw side-footed one in to double United's advantage over their City rivals on Sunday. (Photo credit: Premierleague.com)

Football has a way of making the best of bookies look puerile in the face of the craziest of results, form becomes useless and results go the other way, football is beautiful!

 

Manchester United ended Manchester City's winning run in the English Premier League with a 2-0 victory at the Etihad on Sunday, and that by all standards came well and truly against the run of form if you like to put it that way.

 

It was always coming but City didn’t heed warnings, hence they conceded at the start of each half from the boots of Bruno Fernandes and an unlikely source, Luke Shaw who side-footed one in just four minutes after the restart.

 

The result sees Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's side leapfrog Leicester City into second place and go 11 points behind leaders City, keeping alive a faint hope of catching up with their noisy neighbors in the race for the title.

 

United have now gone 22 matches unbeaten away from home and it was also the first time they won a league game against the "Big Six" teams this season having scored just once in the previous games, albeit a penalty in the 6-1 loss to Spurs.

The only negative point for United was that Marcus Rashford came off with an injury in the second half.

 

"When you come away with a 2-0 win and another clean sheet and a performance like this then you are delighted," Solskjaer told Sky Sports.

"Every game is different. We went back to be a little bit what we wanted to be and that's being direct."

United were awarded a penalty after 34 seconds when Gabriel Jesus brought down Anthony Martial inside the penalty and Fernandes converted the spot-kick despite Ederson getting a hand to his effort but it was too strong to be kept out.

 

City responded well and Olexandr Dean Henderson into a good save after 24 minutes and the goalkeeper also denied Ilkay Gundogan moments later; the young goalkeeper got the nod to start after David De Gea pulled out for family reasons.

 

Henderson also tipped over Kevin De Bruyne’s free-kick while Mahrez's shot went just past the post on the stroke of half-time.

 

City came close to an equalizer right after the break but Rodri's strike clipped the top of the bar.

 

United grabbed a second goal moments later when Shaw started and finished a swift attack with a calm finish into the bottom corner.

The visitors almost scored a third after 68 minutes when Martial was through on goal but Ederson saved from close range, bringing to fore the weaknesses of the Frenchman in front of goal and in flashes.

 

Raheem Sterling was close to grabbing a goal late on but he failed to connect with Kyle Walker's cross, the England forward continued his stinking record against United having failed to find the net despite having over 50 shots.

 

City pressed but United held on to keep their slim hopes of winning the title alive.