Man City beat Man Utd, won the first leg

The blue half of Manchester had an overwhelming match against their neighbors and won their 14th consecutive victory in the Premier League.

Otamendi scored the winning goal for Man City. Photo: Reuters

Goals: Rashford 45'+3 - Silva 43', Otamendi 54'

Man City showed the Premier League that they are the masters of the tournament after a superior performance against neighbours Man Utd. Man City's two goals came from defensive errors from the home team but their style of play and game plan far exceeded what Mourinho's players showed.

The victory over Man Utd helped Man City gain 46 points, 11 points ahead of their opponents and will certainly maintain the top spot in the Premier League after the first leg with only three rounds left. In addition, Man City also surpassed Arsenal (2001-2002 season) and Chelsea (2016-2017) to set a record of consecutive wins with 14 matches.

Visiting Old Trafford, Man City did not have the best start after losing to Shakhtar Donetsk in the middle of the week. However, that seemed to give Man Utd too much confidence, through coach Mourinho using all four attacking players who tend to rush into the 16m50 box: Rashford, Martial, Lingard and Lukaku. This did not help Man Utd create many opportunities because they lacked a link player like Pogba while Matic and Herrera were only focused on defending.

Otamendi's tackle on Martial. Photo: AFP.

Man Utd’s simple attacks by having the front four players accelerate were ineffective. Man City not only controlled the ball well but also knew how to apply pressure and quickly win the ball when lost. This made Man Utd’s attacks disjointed and fell into a deadlock.

Striker Lukaku did not show much throughout the match as he was constantly being closely followed by Man City's defenders. Unable to find the back of the net, Lukaku made his team pay with two goals. In the first goal, Lukaku headed the ball back for David Silva to finish, while in the second goal, he saw the ball hit Lindelof for Otamendi to seize the opportunity.

Lukaku did not leave much of an impression except for the two situations that led to Man Utd's loss. Photo: Reuters

Man Utd were also compensated by a mistake from Otamendi himself after the Argentine centre-back missed a header, allowing Rashford to score in first-half stoppage time. This was Man Utd's most notable situation besides two consecutive shots from Lukaku and Juan Mata at the end of the match, but both were blocked by goalkeeper Ederson.

The second half saw Man Utd press forward and Man City have many chances to counter-attack. If coach Pep Guardiola's students had been accurate in the final pass, Sterling, De Bruyne or Bernardo Silva would have sealed a more convincing victory.

Coach Mourinho sent Ibrahimovic onto the field for the last 15 minutes of the match, but the appearance of the Swedish star was not enough to restore hope for Man Utd, and possibly for the entire Premier League this season.

According to VNE