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MOTD: Manchester City 1-0 Manchester United

By on November 2, 2014

Manchester City had class tonight. Class, but not as much spirit. Manchester United may have lacked that extra touch of class at times, yet brimmed with spirit. On paper, City should be able to beat a United team who ended up playing three different center-back pairings and were down to ten men for a majority of the match. But while City lacked it, United demonstrated the spirit to keep it close.

Indeed, Chris Smalling’s red card was caused via two “stupid” bookings, as Louis Van Gaal, among others put it post-match. Blocking a goal-kick and making a rash, late challenge after getting skinned by… James Milner, deserves a sending off, especially after multiple other borderline-tackles. Smalling’s red certainly changed the match for the worse for United; however, the Red Devils had the spirit to fight back.  In the end, while they might have more class, City were lucky to win. That does not mean, however, that they didn’t “deserve” it. They had far more chances than United, but in the end they lacked spirit. Once they took the lead, they looked so dreadfully uncomfortable with it that it almost reinstated their position as upstarts, not like United, a club with history, morale, and spirit. United can take just as many positives as City can.

There was little difference between this match and Manchester United’s draw with Chelsea last weekend. The only major difference was that United were not reduced to ten men against Chelsea, a move that today clearly inhibited their attacks. In both matches, the opposition deservedly took a second half lead, having dominated for large portions of the game, but United came back. The Red Devils regained the spirit they had in Sir Alex Ferguson’s “golden days” at the club. The only really difference between that match and this Manchester Derby was that United took their chances. They had them today, but couldn’t find the back of the net.

City dominated large portions of the game. In the first twenty minutes alone David De Gea was forced to make three smart stops to keep United in the game, and that was before Smalling got sent-off. Afterwards, of course, Sergio Aguero would give City the lead via Gael Clichy’s cut-back from the left on the other side of the half. However, United bounced back. Robin Van Persie’s shot was denied by a Joe Hart kick-save, and Marouane Fellaini also headed a great chance over before a scintillating run from Wayne Rooney ended with Hart making an incredible stop to tip Angel Di Maria’s low shot wide of the post

But even though it ended in loss United should draw positives from their performance. Class can be taught and bought, but sprit cannot. Sir Alex Ferguson’s great sides were sometime not the best on paper, but won via their spirit.

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.