Manchester United’s best week of their season continued as they went into their neighbors’ home and came out with all three points. A blistering counter-attacking performance gave them a deserved lead going into halftime, and then resolute defending, despite a late Nicolas Otamendi header, allowed them to hold on to the victory. Bernardo Silva’s foul (with VAR working exactly as it should) let Marcus Rashford opening the scoring with a penalty kick on 23 minutes, before Rashford missed a great chance to double the lead only minutes later. Anthony Martial did capitalize on more lackluster City defending to beat Ederson at his near post for 2-0 before 30 minutes had passed.
While Manchester City did eventually rack up plenty of xG, they looked blunt until well after the 70 minute mark. They are creating and scoring goals at a similar rate to last season at this point, but, like at Norwich and Liverpool, their poor defense into a hole that they could not get out of.
One of the key elements to Manchester City in the last couple years has been their xG per attempt. They create very good chances, often ending in the goal scorer having a simple tap in. While they did have a few chances inside the 6 today, we see 16 low xG shots, none of which resulted in goals.
That being said, Manchester City’s late barrage meant they were unlucky not to at least salvage a draw. We can see in the goal difference plot below that a draw was the most likely outcome. They are now 14 points behind runaway leaders Liverpool, and an astonishing 6 points behind Leicester City in second place. The match between Manchester City and Leicester City in a couple weeks could be pivotal if they have any hope of remaining in a title race.
Meanwhile, for Manchester United this has been a huge turnaround after the disappointing draw home to Aston Villa last weekend. A big win at home against Jose Mourinho’s Tottenham followed by this victory has brought a good feeling back to the red half of Manchester. Now up to 5th place, they are in a position to strike if Chelsea’s recent woes continue. They do need to be careful though, as they are part of a group of 6 teams (7 if Arsenal can beat West Ham tonight) all separated by only 2 points. While the title race looks to be getting less interesting, the race for 4th place and Europe could be heating up.
Becker Sports Graphics 