Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho on Sunday blamed a draining week for his side’s disappointing performance as Manchester City moved back to the top of the Premier League with a convincing 3-1 win in the derby at the Etihad Stadium.
Early goals in each half from David Silva and Sergio Aguero put City in command, and Ilkay Gundogan condemned United to a fourth league defeat of the season after Anthony Martial’s penalty had given the visitors hope.
City are now 12 points clear of their local rivals after leapfrogging Liverpool to move two ahead at the top, with Mourinho’s men in eighth.
Photo: Reuters
Martial’s reply was United’s only shot on target as City showed why they are champions and are on course to finish above the Red Devils for a sixth straight season since Sir Alex Ferguson retired.
“You can go for stats, that’s the way people who don’t understand football analyze football,” Mourinho said. “I don’t go for stats, I go for what I felt and what I watch in the game, and the game was there until minute 80-something.”
Mourinho’s men came from behind to win 2-1 at AFC Bournemouth and Juventus late on the previous week, while City smashed Southampton and Shakhtar Donetsk for six, and Mourinho claimed his side, also shorn of Paul Pogba through injury, were physically and mentally exhausted.
“In a week where they enjoy two 6-0, 6-1 victories, relaxed, no pressure, no mental effort, everything nice and easy, and we played two matches away, difficult ones, where the second one was like a final for us against one of the best teams in Europe,” he said. “In a game that demanded everything we had to give not just physically, but mentally.”
Pep Guardiola’s side have now won 11 and drawn one of their past 12 games with the only blip in that run coming in a 0-0 draw away to Liverpool — one of only two fixtures they lost in the Premier League last season.
The other was at home to United when City spurned the chance to seal the title against their local rivals in April by blowing a 2-0 halftime lead to lose 3-2.
City settled that score and ensured that if they are to be denied in their quest to be the first side in a decade to retain the Premier League title, the challenge is likely to come from Liverpool or London rather than across Manchester.
“Liverpool, Chelsea, Tottenham [Hotspur] and Arsenal, they have numbers to be champions, not just Man City,” said Guardiola, who extended his own personal record against Mourinho to just five defeats in 22 matches. “The depth of our squad helps a lot because everybody knows they have to be at a level if they want to stay there.”
Bernardo Silva was the provider for his namesake to register his seventh goal of the season with a shot that had just too much power for David de Gea on 12 minutes.
Three minutes after the break, Aguero played a one-two with Riyad Mahrez and blasted high past De Gea to move out on his own as the Premier League’s top scorer with eight goals.
Yet, just as City threatened to run riot, their momentum was halted when with his first involvement since coming on as a substitute Romelu Lukaku was upended by Ederson for a United penalty, which Martial slotted in to score for the fifth straight league game.
However, it was City who still looked the more likely to score and they sealed all three points in style.
Gundogan finished off a 44-pass move that dragged United all over the pitch, slotting home five minutes from time.
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