City Watch: Blues take spoils in the derby

It feels like Manchester City have already had their first proper test of the season, and what a way to pass it.

Last week I said the Manchester derby would be Enzo Maresca’s first real test as City manager, and I don't think anyone could have predicted quite how much drama we'd get at Old Trafford. Last season, Michael Carrick's first game in charge of Manchester United was against us, and he somehow managed to get a victory, so naturally, we were hoping for a similar outcome this time around.

What we got was a 1-0 City victory with ten men for more than an hour, a controversial red card, an even more controversial winner and enough arguments about refereeing decisions to last us until the next derby. 

Let's be honest, Manchester derbies have had a habit of producing some sort of controversy over the year so going into Sunday, I was hoping we could just have a good old-fashioned derby without spending the following week debating refereeing decisions and frankly, I should have known better.

United started the game really well and City took a while to settle with the Reds more dangerous side in the opening stages, and then just before the half hour mark came the first major talking point where Phil Foden was shown a straight red card after kicking out at Bruno Fernandes following an altercation between the pair.

Now I'm not going to sit here and claim Foden shouldn't have been sent off especially since the way football is refereed now. It wasn't exactly surprising that the referee saw the kick as violent conduct but I do struggle to understand how Bruno Fernandes escaped any punishment himself.

Fernandes kicked Foden in the back first after fouling him and then, rather than simply walking away, continued to antagonise him. Foden fell straight into the trap and reacted, brushing his leg into Bruno's stomach. There were no studs, there was no serious attempt to injure him, and it certainly wasn't a dangerous challenge.

It was petulant from Foden, absolutely, and perhaps the modern game dictates that it's a red card. But I don't think anybody would have batted an eyelid if both players had received yellow cards and we had simply got on with the game. The fact that Foden was sent off while Bruno received nothing was ridiculous, considering that the United player’s action was factually more violent than Phil’s.

Maresca himself later agreed that Foden's red was a red card, but that Fernandes' actions also warranted the same punishment, the fact he got nothing was ridiculous. Going down to ten men at Old Trafford for over an hour looked like it could have been disastrous, but what happened afterwards was actually one of the most encouraging things I've seen from this City side.

United were poor, there's no denying that, but I think our performance made them look that way. City showed a level of character, determination and fight that perhaps we haven't seen enough of in the opening games of this new era, so seeing that level of spirit was inspiring.

This was the sort of game where you find out what a team is made of, and City absolutely refused to fold. Maresca has been praised and criticised for his tactics already during his managerial career, and he actually found himself in a very similar situation last season when Chelsea went down to ten men at Old Trafford with some of his decisions that day being very questionable.

That changed on Sunday, though, when he brought Iliman Ndiaye on for Rayan Cherki at half-time. Cherki hadn't done much wrong, but City needed someone who could hold the ball, contribute defensively, run at United and win fouls to give the defence a chance to breathe. Ndiaye did exactly that and controlled the pace of our attacks brilliantly.

So, when City took the lead through Erling Haaland, it wasn;t exactly surprising. His ninth goal in Manchester derbies proved to be enough to win the game, but naturally, we couldn't just score a perfectly normal goal and move on with our lives.

It was initially ruled offside before VAR overturned the decision and awarded the goal. Haaland himself was onside, but the controversy centred around Enzo Fernandez, who was in an offside position and attempted to play the ball, affecting Lisandro Martinez and the goalkeeper in the process.

I won’t be biased, for me, VAR made a shocking decision. The refereeing body has since admitted that the goal should not have stood, acknowledging that the VAR failed to properly consider Fernandez's impact on the play. That doesn't change the result, though, and honestly, I couldn't care less.

There’s almost a bit of poetic justice about it, I don't remember seeing United fans complaining quite so loudly about interfering with play without touching the ball when Marcus Rashford did exactly that against City at Old Trafford in 2023, blocking Manuel Akanji from challenging Bruno Fernandes before Fernandes scored. It is quite funny how football works isn’t it, swings and roundabouts and all that…

Regardless of the two major decisions, City deserved to win that game and very much deserved the praise that came with it. Playing with ten men for the majority of it and still restricting United to just three shots on target was an outstanding defensive effort.

Enzo Fernandez and Elliot Anderson were absolutely exceptional, and the whole team showed a level of resilience that should give Maresca plenty to be pleased about. There had been concerns about City's defence after conceding against Bournemouth and giving away plenty of chances against Coventry and Porto, but Sunday's performance put those worries to one side.

More importantly, Maresca has now passed his first real test and after four games we have four wins. City sit in second in the Premier League, level on points with Arsenal so it really couldn’t have been a better start for Maresca.

Norwich are up next at the Etihad in the Carabao Cup before Sunderland visit Manchester in our final Premier League game ahead of the new three-week international break.

But for now, forget all of that, we won the derby with ten men at Old Trafford… not bad for the noisy neighbours.