LONDON (AP) — A double from Kevin De Bruyne. A double from Riyad Mahrez. The double completed by City over United in this season’s Manchester derbies.
Just further confirmation of the divergent paths these one-time rivals are on in the Premier League.
The 4-1 victory on Sunday restored City’s six-point lead over Liverpool in its quest to defend the title and pick up the trophy for a sixth time in a decade.
And where is United? Languishing 22 points behind City and now no longer even in the fourth and final Champions League place.
It was being outclassed at home and losing 2-0 to City in the derby in November that precipitated the firing of Ole Gunnar Solskjær. The final blow was losing to Watford — the team that was beaten 3-2 in Sunday’s other game that allowed Arsenal to dislodge United from fourth.
But United has been a work in progress since Alex Ferguson retired back in 2013 after the last Premier League title win.
Sunday’s game produced only City’s second home derby win in the league in seven attempts. But while United and City both have a net spend of around $1 billion on transfers in the last decade, the blue half of Manchester is the team regularly collecting trophies. United is enduring a five-year title drought since the 2017 Europa League triumph that can only be ended by winning the Champions League this season.
The European Cup is the priority trophy for City after losing the final last season to Chelsea, however sweet it will be to win the Premier League again.
United did have to cope without Cristiano Ronaldo, Edinson Cavani, Raphael Varane and Luke Shaw through injury or illness on Sunday. That doesn’t fully account for how ineffective United was or how susceptible Harry Maguire was in defense.