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First off, you have to offer congratulations to City. They dominated the match, so much that we did not even have a shot on target.
Sir Alex Ferguson certainly raised eyebrows with his selections. He clearly went with experience instead of Ashley Young and Danny Welbeck. Ryan Giggs and Ji Sung Park, along with Nani on the right were chosen over Antonio Valencia. 4-5-1 it was
The opening 10 minutes were promising yet yielded nothing. And after that, City took over. But Manchester United's defense stood firm. City were able to get the ball out wide, yet their small attackers could do nothing with the lofted balls played in.
Yet Vincent Kompany most definitely could. The corner was played in at the stroke of half time, Chris Smalling, who otherwise had a very solid game, lost his man and Kompany gave David De Gea no chance. Probably the worst time the goal could have been scored.
Second half and not much changed. City were still pressing, making all the running. David Silva was particulary impressive. United needed changes. Yet when they came, they were largely ineffective. Giggs was left on. His experience maybe trusted too much. And Scholes came off. Maybe he was too tired?
City should have increased their lead. Samir Nasri had a glorious chance, but the former Arsenal man tried walking into the net when he should have put his foot through it. Yaya Toure had am effort whistle past the post, and De Gea saved well from Gael Clichy. But it stayed 1-0.
I don't see the point in slating the performance, or Ferguson. No other manager would have been able to guide us on the run we have had this season. We have lost argubly the best defender in the world. A very good midfielder in the form of Darren Fletcher, who we have missed so much. And just a lack of out and out quality compared to the multi-million pound squad of CIty.
Im not going to blame Smalling either, despite his being the crucial match winning/losing mistake. He was pretty fantastic otherwise, and United's defense stood very firm against one of the best attacking sides to grace the Premier League.
We now must pin our hopes on Newcastle to pull off the unlikely and nick a point off the leaders now, whilst winning our own games, which will be no easy task against Swansea and Sunderland.
Now, im off to have a big glass of Scotch. Or ten.....