Silva and Sane down Manchester United as City continue charge for Premier League title

Manchester United 0-2 Manchester City

Manchester City comfortably beat city rivals Manchester United 2-0 at Old Trafford thanks to goals from Bernardo Silva and Leroy Sane. The result means the destination of the Premier League title is in their hands, knowing only a slip up could see Liverpool take top spot off them before the season ends.

Manchester United began the game in the ascendancy as they looked to utilise the pace and movement of Marcus Rashford and Jesse Lingard. Vincent Kompany struggled early on to deal with the United forwards and was caught off focus by Rashford from a long ball over the top, the Belgian pulling the pacey striker down but avoiding any penalisation from the officials.

Kompany was not so lucky the second time, as he body checked the England forward infront of the referee and went into the book just ten minutes into the match. Manchester City struggled to have any quality possession in the Manchester United half for the first 20 minutes as Fred and Paul Pogba broke up the play before trying to put the ball in behind the City defence.

The first chance for the Citizens came as Raheem Sterling cut inside and shot goalwards, but a Chris Smalling deflection took the sting out of it meaning David De Gea could recover to smother the ball before it crossed the line. Fred responded with a long range effort of his own, but the strike went well wide.

Bernardo Silva forced De Gea into a fantastic save from 20 yards out as he powered a vicious shot towards goal, the parry from the goalkeeper breaking kindly for United to counter with pace as Rashford found himself one on one with Ederson. The Brazilian shot stopper always seemed confident in his decision to leave his line as he smothered the ball and sent the striker sprawling across the pitch by doing so.

Andreas Pereira went into the book for a late challenge on Oleksandr Zinchenko, the full back then being shown a yellow card himself for two fouls in quick succession. Ilkay Gundogan found space to lift the ball over the top of the defence but the dangerous Sterling failed to control the ball as the danger amounted to nothing. The England forward came close soon after, with some sensational intricate play within the penalty area amongst the City forwards. Sterling found himself dancing through challenges before swinging a right foot at the ball as he stumbled, taking it away from the arriving left foot of Gundogan. De Gea reacted well to save the shot but City might feel Gundogan had the better opportunity.

The first half ended with both sides probing, but creating very little in terms of high quality chances. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer would have been a happy man after the poor result against Everton, whilst Pep Guardiola hoped to galvanise his team.

Fernandinho had to leave the field injured early in the second half after he made a superb block on Paul Pogba in the area, but came off worse with a shin injury, the Brazilian was replaced by Leroy Sane.

Sane’s impact was immediate, tormenting Ashley Young down the left-hand side with his pace and guile, flashing the ball across the six yard box forcing the entire Manchester United defence onto the back foot.

Soon after City took the lead through Bernardo Silva, who cut in from the right and scuffed the ball low into the near bottom corner. David De Gea was seemingly unsighted but would have hoped to have had more protection from Luke Shaw.

Sergio Aguero nearly doubled the lead as he linked up with Leroy Sane but clipped the post from the edge of the box with De Gea well beaten. The second soon came though, Sterling breaking forward and playing in Leroy Sane who slammed the ball towards the front post. Again De Gea would feel he should have done better as the ball bounced off his own foot and into the corner.

The remainder of the half was played by Manchester City, Gundogan controlled the middle of the pitch and the ball, dictating the play. Manchester United struggled to get hold of the ball for long enough to worry the Manchester City defence.

The result puts Guardiola’s side in pole positions for the title, knowing they will take the trophy if they win all their remaining games.

For United, it was yet another result which saw Pogba apologising to the crowd, as he and his teammates succumed to their 7th defeat in nine games.