The 6-1 merciless thrashing of Manchester United at the hands of their ‘noisy neighbours’, Manchester City, will for a long time be the talk at the City of Manchester and beyond.
It’s almost impossible to think that a team of United’s repute, add the fact that they are the defending Premier League Champions, would receive such a humbling irrespective of how much Manchester City have spent in trying to eclipse their Northwest England rivals.
The defeat has been described by Sir Alex Ferguson as ‘horrible’ and ‘suicidal’, and he summed it up as his "worst ever day" at the club before promising that "There will be a response." Whether that response, and its magnitude, will come against Everton on Saturday or against Romanian outfit Otelul Galati in the UEFA Champions league next week, or better yet, at Etihad Stadium on April 28 2012 is a case of wait and see.
But was this humiliation utterly ill-timed? If you look at the Red Devils’ most recent results, it’s hard to answer ‘yes’ to that.
After beating Chelsea 3-1 away, United have recorded some unconvincing results, by their standards, in their last four premier league encounters. A 1-1 stalemate away to Stoke was followed by an uninspiring 2-0 win over promoted side Norwich at the beginning of November. However, it was the Champions League home game against Basel which ended 3-3 and the lucky 1-1 draw with Liverpool a fortnight ago that exposed United.
At Liverpool, Man United had to rely on the gloves of their custodian David De Gea who pulled off one stunning save after another to keep the scoreline at 1-1. But Liverpool have been profligate in front of the opposition backline since the beginning of the season. King Kenny’s men have many a times completely bamboozled their opponents but ended up either drawing, losing or escaping with a one-goal difference win.
Manchester City, however, have been nothing short of prolific in front of goal and this justifies why they lead the scoring chart with a massive 33 goals in only nine matches. David Silva’s creativity and flair from midfield to attack is second to none in the league right now. The Spaniard is the lifeblood of the Citizens and is always almost at the center of every goal that they score.
Against United, he was the spark once again and at the center of three of City’s six goals, scoring the fifth one before setting up Edin Dzeko with an enjoyable pass to make it 6-1.
City exposed the United defence which has of late been shipping in goals keeping a clean sheet only in one of their last five premier league outings. The 6-1 drubbing may have come when the team looked on form but it wasn’t a surprise as such.
And That's thesteifmastertake!!
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