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Rob DawsonCorrespondent
MANCHESTER, England — If Sunday brought a memorable rendition of the Manchester derby, then it was memorable not just for the goals, but how lopsided and noncompetitive it was. Manchester City demolished Manchester United at Etihad Stadium 6-3 for the highest-scoring Manchester derby ever.
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Erling Haaland and Phil Foden combined for City’s six goals, each scoring a hat trick, while Antony and Anthony Martial did their best to prevent United from total humiliation. Foden’s hat trick was his first of his career.
ESPN’s Rob Dawson has reaction and analysis from Etihad Stadium.
JUMP TO: Player ratings | Best/worst performers | Highlights and notable moments | Post-match quotes | Key stats | Upcoming fixtures
Rapid reaction
1. Man City show their class to burst Man United’s bubble
After wins over Liverpool and Arsenal this season, Man United fans will have turned up at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday believing they could get a positive result against Man City, but any hope was gone after just eight minutes.
Pep Guardiola’s side were already dominant before Phil Foden scored the first goal and United were lucky to be only 4-0 down at half-time after City had managed 15 shots on goal.
United have shown signs of improvement under Erik ten Hag following early-season defeats to Brighton and Brentford — particularly against Liverpool and Arsenal — but this was a brutal reality check.
Ten Hag picked the strongest team available to him while Guardiola had to deal with the loss of first-choice midfielder Rodri because of a calf injury and fielded a centre-back pairing of Nathan Ake and Manuel Akanji, but City were still far too strong and won an eighth straight home league game scored while scoring at least three goals to match a run last recorded by Tottenham in 1965.
Guardiola’s team showed again that they are the best in the Premier League by a distance and reminded Ten Hag and United that it will be a while yet before they are realistically ready to challenge for the title. It was a day when City put their derby rivals back in their box.
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2. Haaland answers “flat-track bully” debate
If there was one remaining question about Erling Haaland in the Premier League it was whether he could do it in the big games and against United, the Norwegian answered emphatically.
Haaland missed the chance to open his account for Man City against Liverpool in the Community Shield back in August but in his first league game against a traditional top six rival, he took the opportunity to silence any lingering doubters with a third hat trick in his past three home league games.
If the 22-year-old had continued to bang in hat tricks against the likes of Nottingham Forest and Crystal Palace, he would have been very quickly labelled as a flat-track bully, but here he got the better of a centre-back pairing of Lisandro Martinez and Raphael Varane, who had been lauded since coming together for the win over Liverpool more than a month ago.
Haaland has now scored 17 goals in just 11 games for City since his summer move from Borussia Dortmund, finding the net in each of his past eight club appearances.
That blank against Liverpool at the King Power Stadium feels like an awfully long time ago now and he’ll get a chance to put that right when City travel to Anfield on Oct. 16.
3. What’s going on with Casemiro?
United spent £60 million to bring five-time Champions League winner Casemiro to Old Trafford in the summer, but he’s hardly been able to get a game.
There’s an argument that Ten Hag wanted to keep faith with the team that had won four straight league games ahead of the derby but if ever there was a day for Casemiro’s experience and composure it was against Guardiola’s champions.
With Casemiro left on the bench, United were out-played in midfield by Gundogan, Bernardo and De Bruyne — particularly early in the first half when Jack Grealish and Bernardo doubled up on Diogo Dalot down the left to create chance after chance.
The longer Casemiro struggles to get into the team, the more questions will be asked of Ten Hag about whether or not he wanted the Brazilian in the first place. Ten Hag’s top target for the No. 6 role in the summer was Barcelona‘s Frenkie de Jong, and Casemiro’s attributes are very different to what the Dutchman can offer.
All eyes will be on the team sheet when United play their next league game against Everton at Goodison Park in a week’s time and whether or not Casemiro will finally be handed a Premier League start.
Player ratings
Man City: Ederson 7, Walker 7, Cancelo 7, Ake 7, Akanji 7, Gundogan 7, Bernardo 7, De Bruyne 8, Foden 9, Grealish 8, Haaland 9.
Subs: Gomez 7, Laporte 6, Alvarez 6, Palmer 6, Mahrez 6.
Man United: De Gea 5, Dalot 5, Malacia 5, Varane 5, Martinez 5, McTominay 5, Eriksen 5, Fernandes 5, Sancho 4, Antony 5, Rashford 4.
Subs: Lindelof 5, Shaw 5, Martial 6, Casemiro 6, Fred 6.
Best and worst performers
BEST: Phil Foden, Manchester City
It could have been anyone from Haaland, Jack Grealish or Kevin De Bruyne, but Foden just edges it for his role in City’s complete first-half performance.
WORST: Jadon Sancho, Manchester United
United didn’t offer anything going forward until it was too late, and Sancho was particularly poor although there’s not one player who can be happy with their performance.
Highlights and notable moments
The opening goal came from Foden within eight minutes of the opening whistle. It was a nice one-time strike that he made look easy, but showed a good bit of skill:
The main man early: Phil Foden 🔵
— Premier League USA (@PLinUSA) October 2, 2022
Haaland made it 3-0, and he continued to prove that maybe, just maybe, he really will set some records in the Premier League this season.
It’s hard to bet against him when he keeps scoring goals that not everyone else would score:
Karate kid 🥋
A quick brace for @ErlingHaaland!
— Premier League USA (@PLinUSA) October 2, 2022
Man United managed to pull one back to make it 4-1, and Antony scored his second-straight Premier League goal in as many games.
It was a gorgeous goal too, but only a footnote on an otherwise dominant City performance:
Two goals in two #PL matches for Antony 🚀🇧🇷
— Premier League USA (@PLinUSA) October 2, 2022
The rest of the match was more of the same. Lots of goals, and lots of Man City out-classing their crosstown rivals.
After the match: What the players said
Manchester United midfielder Christian Eriksen: “It came very heavy. Everyone feels it was a very bad day at the office. We started on the wrong foot. They had chances straight from kickoff. We can only blame ourselves. We missed a bit of courage to play out from the back and we let them be at their strength. The main focus from this game will be on ourselves. There are a lot of things we need to change and a lot of things we need to do better. Today was far from acceptable from what we should be doing.”
Manchester City striker Erling Haaland: “Yeah, not bad — we scored six goals! What can I say? It’s amazing. To win at home, score six goals, it’s nice. You can feel it all the time. You can see the passes we give each other. We always want to go forward and to attack. It’s what I love about the team. In the end, it’s amazing. There is nothing more to say.”
Haaland, when asked whether he or Phil Foden will get the match ball: “We can do one ball for the first half and one ball for the second half.”
Key stats (provided by ESPN Stats & Information)
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Nine goals on Sunday made it the highest-scoring Manchester derby ever in all competitions.
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Erik ten Hag is now the sixth coach for United to make his Manchester derby debut and lose since Sir Alex Ferguson left. The last coach to win his derby debut was Sir Alex Ferguson in 1987.
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Manchester City has scored 3+ goals in eight straight home league wins. City is the first team to win eight straight home top division games while scoring 3+ goals since Tottenham in 1965.
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With 14 goals this season, Haaland has more Premier League goals than 14 teams in the Premier League.
Up next
Manchester City: The Citizens switch gears to the UEFA Champions League when they host FC Copenhagen at 3 p.m. on Wednesday. Then, Man City return to Premier League action, hosting Southampton on Saturday.
Manchester United: The Red Devils switch gears to the Europa League and travel to face Omonia Nicosia at 12:45 p.m. ET on Thursday in Limassol, Cyprus. Then, Man United return to Premier League action at Everton on Oct. 9.