Monday, October 24, 2011

City thumps United 6-1

Manchester City beat their cross-town rivals Manchester United 6-1 at Old Trafford. That's right, on the road at Old Trafford, not at home.

United defender Jonny Evans was rightly sent off when City were only leading 1-0. It was the ever mercurial City striker Mario Balotelli that broke through to cause the Evans dismissal.

As always you take the good with the bad with Balotelli. After scoring, Balotelli lifted his jersey to reveal the saying: Why Always Me? Balotelli earned a yellow card for that silly display. In Balotelli's 35 appearances for City he as been a scoring machine (16 goals) that always has a chance to get sent off (12 yellow cards and two red cards).

Darren Fletcher scored the only United goal with 10 minutes left in the match to make it 3-1. At that point every City fan started to get nervous since United has been the bully of Manchester for the last few decades.

Unfortunately for United it is a new era in Manchester. Little did we know at the time that City would score three more goals to notch their most lopsided road win in the Manchester Derby since City won 5-0 at Old Trafford on February 12, 1955.

The six goals scored is the most City have scored at Old Trafford since before World War II (on January 23, 1926 City beat United 6-1) and it also marks the most goals United have allowed in a league match since September 13, 1930 (lost 7-4 to Newcastle).

In order to tally six, almost everyone on the pitch had to notch at least one goal. The goal scorers for City were Mario Balotelli (2 goals), Edin Dzeko (2 goals), Sergio Aguero (1 goal), and David Silva (1 goal).

United has not been playing great as of late but they still had a 19-game unbeaten streak at home in the league (two short of Liverpool's record of 21 from 1972-73) to go along with a 37-game unbeaten streak at home.

City have only won twice at Old Trafford since 1974, which gives you some perspective on how rare of a feat City just completed.

The calls for City to win the league are going to get even louder now but there are still a ton of games left to play. City should enjoy the victory and relish the one quote that summed up the entire match, United manager Alex Ferguson said "It's the worst result in my history, ever."

Related Posts:
- Sunday Funday - 2011-12 Manchester City Initial Player Rankings