Premier League: Manchester United topple Manchester City in controversy !

At Old Trafford this afternoon, Erik Ten Hag’s men complete a great operation. In a controversial scenario, Man United also got revenge for the first leg, where they were smashed by City.

The Manchester derby lived up to its promise. At the final whistle, referee Stuart Attwell released the Red Devils’ jubilant crowd. A 2-1 victory for Erik Ten Hag and his players, which allows them to come back to a small point of their opponents of the day in the ranking. The Sky Blues deprived United of the ball (70% of possession) and provoked 15 fouls against them, but did not get many shots on goal. 

Goal validated in polemic

This victory, too, had an air of hold-up and did not fail to create controversy. The reason : the home side’s equalising goal. After going behind to Jack Grealish’s (60′) the Dutch coach’s men went on the counter-attack in the 78th minute, with Casemiro throwing Marcus Rashford into the back of the opposition defence. It was finally Bruno Fernandes who shot past Ederson. The goal is initially disallowed as the referee raises his flag. Rashford is offside. The English striker was indeed in an illegal position, yet Stuart Attwell awarded the goal to the Red Devils after consultation with his assistant. It was a shock to the citizens. Although Rashford did not touch the ball, the Sky Blues and Guardiola felt that the centre-forward was making a play and clearly influencing the run of the defenders.

Four minutes later, Manchester City were stunned. On another counter-attack, Bruno Fernandes fed Alejandro Garnacho on the left flank. The Argentinian winger, who had come on for Christian Eriksen ten minutes earlier, beat Nathan Aké in the box before turning and delivering a perfect low cross. Marcus Rashford made no mistake in pushing the ball into the back of the net to the delight of the fans. After that, Man United went into low and hard defensive mode to hold on to this precious result.

The three points allow the Red Devils to continue their diabolical form and win a fifth straight game in the league. In their next game on Wednesday, they travel to Selhurst Park to face Crystal Palace. Manchester City, meanwhile, host Tottenham on Thursday 19 January.