Derby reax

Henry Winter, Daily Telegraph

Owen was taken to United hearts for embodying their DNA: a refusal to surrender. Sir Alex Ferguson’s side had dominated for much of this absorbing game yet City, resilience personified and inspired by the outstanding trio of Given, Nigel de Jong and Bellamy, kept fighting back, kept equalising. As the team who live closest to United, City should really know about their neighbours’ most celebrated quality. United never give up. From Nou Camp ’99 to Old Trafford ’09, injury time is their time.

Matt Lawton, Daily Mail

But there were times when United were second-best and Hughes looked so right when he dared suggest United were not the same now Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez have moved on.

Tevez was terrific, ignoring the boos and a lack of fitness to deliver a display that would have been perfect had he not squandered one first-half chance with a shot that bounced off a post.

For long periods City were the better team in crucial areas: in midfield, where Gareth Barry, Nigel De Jong and Stephen Ireland dominated their opponents in much the same way they had Arsenal, and further forward, where the superb wing play of Craig Bellamy and Shaun Wright-Phillips exposed Ferguson's failure to find a decent replacement for the world's best player.

Oliver Kay, The Times

Hughes felt that City were “robbed”, furious that Owen had scored in the sixth minute of stoppage time, when Alan Wiley, the fourth official, had indicated that there would be four — or, to be accurate, a minimum of four. The minutiae of that decision are discussed elsewhere, but, no matter that City showed character in fighting back three times to equalise — and no matter how cruel defeat was on Bellamy, who scored twice and rivalled Ryan Giggs, his former Wales team-mate, as man of the match — it would have been an injustice had United’s second-half performance not been rewarded.

Kevin McCarra, The Guardian

Regardless of the resentment and the galling knowledge that not even a third leveller, from Craig Bellamy in the 90th minute, could secure a point, this match did City some credit. Sir Alex Ferguson would have you believe that a series of bungles caused United's difficulties but that was an acceptable account mostly of the second half. Prior to that, Carlos Tevez, back at his old club, and others were menacing.

City had been incisive and Bellamy, who would eventually score twice, was too vibrant for Ferguson's defence to subdue him entirely. There was disquiet in the United ranks before the game was under way. It could be witnessed in the Stretford End barrier that declared, "Your players make money, our players make history."

Sam Wallace, The Independent

That shock for Old Trafford preceded City's best period of the match when De Jong was excellent and you had to wonder what might have been different had Emmanuel Adebayor been available yesterday. Park Ji-sung struggled to make an impression. The mind drifted to what a difference Cristiano Ronaldo would have made. But there was no mistaking who came out for the second half minded to win the game.

Derby player ratings

Given Crucial saves in the second half kept us in the game. Possible misjudgement for Fletcher's first header but this is another game which would have gone much worse with almost any other Premier League keeper between our sticks. 7

Richards Lost Patrice Evra for Rooney's goal, gave away the free-kick for Fletcher's second. Otherwise performed manfully but two mistakes is two too many against United. 4

Touré Slipped in front of Rooney for the first goal, lost Fletcher for the third and Owen for the fourth. Otherwise perfect - including the surging run for Tévez's first half miss. But if we wanted solid defence but for occasional and damaging errors we could have stuck with Dunne. 5

Lescott Looked rattled early on but improved in time. The gelling of him and Kolo could be the difference between our finishing fourth or fifth. 6

Bridge Sloppy in possession in the first half but made some important interceptions in the second half. None of his characteristic forward surges either. 5

de Jong Immense in the first half in his tackling and ball-retention. Did not allow United to go back ahead after Barry's equaliser. Could not quite influence the game in the same way in the second half but still demonstrated his importance against the better sides. 7

Barry Not as dominant as he has been so far this season, thanks to the pressure of Darren Fletcher. Took his first goal in blue very coolly. 6

SWP Worked hard, coming in off the right for the ball but could never really get past Evra as easily as he does against lesser left-backs. 6

Ireland One or two very nice touches - the back-heeled spin on the turn for Tévez was genius - and one or two important tackles - but still in keeping with his generally quieter performances this season. Needs a big game. 5

Bellamy This was so close to being 'the Bellamy derby.' Tireless work down the left hand side - as we have come to expect - but two fantastic goals too. The first was a thunderbolt from a relatively wide position - reminiscent of Robinho, who I wouldn't put back in the team based on Bellamy's current form, and the second was a fantastic burst of pace and a cool finish past Foster. One of the stars of the season. 8

Tévez Tireless work created our first goal but when called upon to score his second he failed. Who knows what would have happened had he scored. 6

Sub

Petrov Good pass to Bellamy but little else 6

United 4 - 3 City

• On the balance of the second half, we probably didn't deserve the point that I thought Craig Bellamy's equaliser had brought us. We were under siege for the whole thirty-eight minutes between Bellamy's two strikes. Were it not for Dimitar Berbatov and Shay Given conspiring to keep the score first at 2-2 and then 3-2 we could have been swamped. Imagine what Adebayor (who cost £5m less than Berbatov) would have done with those headed chances. All this is a way of saying that a 3-3 final score would have flattered us, and therefore that we can't complain too much with the final result.

• But I can't quite make myself buy it. To lose in the sixth minute of four minutes of stoppage time stings something quite serious. I'm really not a big fan of the explanatory power of officials' bias in explaining the outcomes of football matches and seasons, and certainly not in relation to a particular conspiracy against one's own team. It stinks of solipsism. That said, I don't think you need to be a lifelong blue to question whether the six minutes of stoppage time - after the initial award of four - was justified. And I don't think you need to be a Munich-singing neanderthal to question whether Manchester United needing a goal at Old Trafford was a factor in the generosity of the award.

• Anyway, back to the performance. It was mixed. In both halves United started with pace and guile and scored early. In both halves City looked rattled before finding an equaliser out of nothing. But there the similarities end. In the first half we grew after Barry's goal, matching United and creating the best chance of the half - Carlos Tévez hitting the post. In the second half we sat back after Bellamy's goal and came under serious and sustained siege. Not much would have to have been different for us to lose this by a distance.

• For all United's domination of possession, I wonder if Hughes will worry that all four of United's goal were avoidable from our perspective. Richards and Kolo Touré slipped for Rooney's goal, while errors of marking were responsible for Darren Fletcher's two headed goals. I don't want to remember Owen's winner but he certainly escaped Kolo after we'd lost the first ball. Defensive errors are certainly part of the game. United have the two best centre-backs in the world and still conceded three. So you can't wholly eliminate them. But after spending £38m on centre-backs one would hope that we could avoid conceding four in one game.

• Realistically, our challenge for the top four is not going to be defined by our result at Old Trafford. It hurts to lose the derby in such circumstances, but better than dwelling on any possible injustice we must hope that the same errors of marking and defending are not made in our next two home games: Fulham in the League Cup on Wednesday, and West Ham in the EPL next Monday. The wheels must not come off.
  

Derby preview

Much of what I wanted to say is covered here.

As a prediction, I'm going to go for a narrow defeat. With everyone fit we may have been competitive, but I just can't see us getting anything with only Craig Bellamy up front on his own. And I love Craig Bellamy.

All I can ask for is a little bit more fight than either of our surrenders last year. For all the talk before about how Mark Hughes understands the Manchester derby, how he keen he is to beat Sir Alex, how he wants to instill a winning mentality and so forth, the two derbies last year were two of the weakest derby performances I can remember for some time. So an improvement on that would be welcome.

Derby interview

I've done an interview with United blog Republik of Mancunia in the build-up to the derby. We discuss Carlos Tévez, my hopes for the derby, and those charming songs City fans sing about our two new strikers.

Check it out here.

Ade charged

With violent conduct and improper conduct:

Under the fast-track disciplinary process, Adebayor has been charged with violent conduct following an incident with Robin van Persie, which resulted in the Arsenal player receiving facial injuries.

Referee Mark Clattenburg has advised The FA that he did not see this incident, but has confirmed that had he done so, he would have sent Adebayor off for violent conduct. The player has until 6pm on Wednesday evening to respond to the charge.

Adebayor has also been charged with improper conduct following his actions when turning and running the full length of the pitch to celebrate in front of the Arsenal supporters after scoring.

Looks like a three game ban for the stamp and then maybe the same for the celebration. We'll have to wait and see. But Craig Bellamy must now be assured a start through the middle at Old Trafford.

Ireland doubt for derby

Bad news from the M.E.N. this morning: Stephen Ireland is an injury doubt for the derby next Sunday. Combined with the absences of Roque Santa Cruz, Carlos Tévez, Robinho and Vincent Kompany - and presuming that Adebayor gets the ban he deserves - we're left rather short.

But Ireland suffered an aggravation of the ankle problem which affected him in the win at Portsmouth a fortnight earlier.

"On Saturday it was touch and go whether he went out for the second-half, so we had to get him off," said manager Mark Hughes.

We will be very limited on Sunday without him. This is the best team I can come up with:


It's not a bad team. It could well be enough to beat West Ham at home two weeks' today. But to get anything from Old Trafford? It's a long shot. I suppose there is one alternative - a first start for Vladi Weiss, on the biggest of stages. How does this look?


I'll stick with the first one. It's a solid midfield base - we can try to swamp Carrick and Fletcher and hope to catch them with our pace on the break. But I'm not holding out much hope for a result.