Manchester City’s derby delight as our favourite Kelechi Iheanacho inspires win over United

Our own Iheanacho celebrates with teammate after he had scored the winning goal

FT: Manchester United 1 - 2 Manchester City
The first great Manchester derby of 2016-2017: £600 million spent on players, a fervour to match any of those that preceded it, and in the end it belonged to Pep Guardiola.
Not by much, after Jose Mourinho’s Manchester United roared back into the game after half-time, having allowed their city neighbours to play all the best tunes for the majority of the first half. By 36 minutes United were two goals down, a counter-attacking team who were doing no counter-attacking and in desperate need of a remedy. More photos After the cut.


It was a breathless, exhilarating way to start the new era of Mancunian rivalry and, at the final whistle, Pep Guardiola could be seen pumping his fists. His team had held out and Claudio Bravo, his new goalkeeper, had been spared after a debut that must have had Manchester City’s supporters longing for Joe Hart’s presence in goal.
Bravo will not always be so fortunate if this is an accurate measure of what is to come but, on the balance of play, nobody could dispute that the more rounded team had won. The first olés could be heard after only 34 minutes from the corner of Old Trafford splashed in blue. A few moments later, Kelechi Iheanacho doubled City’s lead and at that stage it was difficult to remember a more one-sided derby since Roberto Mancini’s team scored six here, Mario Balotelli unveiled his “Why Always Me?” T-shirt and Sir Alex Ferguson was driven away in a state of shock.
Unfortunately for City, it was not too long afterwards that Bravo’s first attempt to catch the ball led to Zlatan Ibrahimovic scoring and from that point onwards the away team’s superiority had to be balanced by José Mourinho’s men knowing the opposition were relying on an accident-prone goalkeeper. United were convinced they should have had a penalty in the second half, with Bravo implicated again, and Marcus Rashford’s introduction at half-time immediately gave them a greater threat in attack. They gave everything in their search for an equaliser and, if nothing else, contributed richly to a thrilling contest.

Kevin De Bruyne scores the opener

No hard feelings between the Coaches