5 things we learned from The Manchester Derby

Manchester City vs Manchester United was another thoroughly pleasing encounter. Here is what we noticed:

They never fail to excite

Only the one goal yesterday but few could have complained about a lack of entertainment yesterday. A truly compelling encounter, as these ones always are.

Manchester City can catch Chelsea

They have had to suffer a lot of criticism this season and they lacked the confidence to kill Manchester United when they had the chance. But they are still the best attacking unit when on song and we believe that they can catch Chelsea this season.

Manchester United are crippled by injury

Listening to Jose Mourinho moan about the odd injury is nothing short of ungrateful when you consider the injury list of Manchester United. Pundits say that United’s defending is all over the shop. But Manchester United now have their 4 first choice central defenders – Smalling, Jones, Evans and Rojo – out injured or suspended. Could any team deal with such losses? Could Chelsea keep on winning without Terry, Cahill, Zouma and Ivanovic?

Top 4 finish on the cards

But even with a patched up defence there is an optimism about this Manchester United side. We think that they are about to start picking up points. They still have Arsenal and Liverpool in the near future but we believe that these two games have galvanised United. We strongly believe that they will be in the Champions League places come May. But they do need to get motoring.

The ref had a shocker

In the end, he probably didn’t affect the outcome – Manchester City were deserved winners. But if Manchester United had turned their late menace into a goal all hell would have broken loose. Referee Michael Oliver missed two-nailed on penalties and a third that most refs would have given.

But he also allowed Joe Hart to all but head butt him – surely that should have merited a red too?